A prolific offender is back in prison after CCTV caught him stealing a purse from a woman’s handbag.
Calvin Henry was caught after a city centre cop recognised him on the footage, which showed him loitering before crouching behind a planter and brazenly reaching into the bag and taking the purse.
Officers tracked him down and arrested him for the theft, which happened in Long Row, in Nottingham city centre, on 13 July 2022.
The purse contained a bank card and enquiries found Henry used it to buy a £85 phone from a nearby shop.
The woman’s bank declined further attempted transactions of £100 and £29.99.
CCTV footage of the theft was obtained and analysed by the city centre neighbourhood policing team.
One of the team’s intelligence officers, PC Phil Brownlow, recognised Henry as the man responsible, having had to deal with him on numerous occasions in the past for various offences.
Having identified him in the CCTV footage, Henry was tracked down and arrested last Friday (22 July 2022). He was subsequently charged with theft and fraud by false representation.
The 56-year-old, of no fixed address, pleaded guilty to the offences at Nottingham Magistrates’ Court on Saturday (23 July 2022).
The court heard he was a prolific offender who was on license from prison at the time he committed these latest crimes.
He was recalled to prison for breaking the terms of the licence and sentenced to a further 24 weeks for the theft and fraud charges.
Henry was also ordered to pay £175 compensation to the woman to cover the fraudulent spending and £90 value of the purse, which was not recovered.
Inspector Paul Gummer, who leads the city centre neighbourhood policing team, said Henry deserved to be back in prison.
He said: “When prisoners are released early from prison on licence, they are required to behave well and stay out of trouble. Sadly, Henry did not do that even knowing he would be returned to prison if caught.
“In this case, the victim was out celebrating her birthday with her daughter. Whilst she was distracted at the table for a moment, Henry seized his chance to completely ruin her day by stealing her purse.
“Henry may have succeeded in going unnoticed at the time but he was unable to escape the gaze of the CCTV cameras that captured this crime.
“His offending was utterly brazen and caused significant upset to his victim – but I hope she finds some comfort in knowing he is now back in prison.”
