Newport teen robber locked up after stealing from boy (From South Wales Argus)

Newport teen robber locked up after stealing from boy

12:40pm Friday 8th February 2013 in News By Chris Wood, Reporter

A NEWPORT teenager admitted robbing another boy because he suspected him of “associating” with his girlfriend while he was in custody for another offence, a court heard.

Zafar Ali, 18, of Ruperra Street, was yesterday locked up for 17 months after pleading guilty to robbery and possessing cocaine.

Cardiff Crown Court heard that Ali served time following a knifepoint robbery of a shop in June 2011.

While inside a young offenders’ institution, he found out a boy was spending time with his girlfriend and he made threatening phone calls to him, prosecutor Julian Greenwood said.

Later, the boy was outside a shop on Commercial Street, Newport, when Ali rode by on a push-bike, chasing after him.

Mr Greenwood said the boy ran away, but Ali cornered him down a side street, calling him names and saying: “I’ll give you five seconds to empty your pockets.”

Ali kept his left hand behind his back, making it appear he had a weapon, before taking a Blackberry phone, headphones, £7 cash and a partly used packet of cigarettes.

He threw the boy’s house key back to him saying “I won’t need this”, adding: “Don’t tell the police, I’m not scared of them.”

After the boy went straight to police, Ali was arrested later that evening and all the items recovered.

He also had 0.7 grams of cocaine in his sock.

Defence barrister Owain Williams said Ali was “very immature” and said the only mitigation was his young age.

Judge Neil Bidder said: “You robbed a boy and made implied threats to him, stealing a significant amount of his property.”

Judge Bidder added: ‘You are plainly addicted to class A drugs,” taking into account a “previous significant robbery conviction” in determining a sentence.

He sentenced Ali to 17 months in a young offenders’ institution for the robbery with one month to run concurrently for the drugs offence.