Kirkby handbag thief later caught with it around his neck

The bag was reported missing from the Lexis nightclub, at 2am, on March 11, and was found around Joshua Webster’s neck as he left a fast food shop on Leeming Street.

Prosecutor Emma Heath-Tilford said a £250 mobile phone and £20 cash was missing from the bag.

Debra Bell, mitigating, said: “I think this is an isolated incident of absolute stupidity which won’t be repeated. He is 21 and has never been in any trouble before.”

She said on the night Webster drank “at least” ten pints of lager and had been drinking shots on top of that, and had also taken cocaine.

“He was completely out of it,” she said. “He can’t remember taking the bag. He is arrested half an hour later walking out of a fast food place in Mansfield with the bag around his neck.

“It couldn’t be any more ridiculous. He doesn’t know what happened to the contents.”

She said Webster had been signed off work because of depresion and anxiety.

Webster, 21, of Marlborough Road, admitted theft by finding when he appeared at Mansfield Magistrates Court, on Wednesday.

He was fined £80, and was ordered to pay £85 costs and a £30 government surcharge, as well as compensation of £270.