Mugger raided clubber’s handbag

Jun 10 2011 by Gregor White, Perthshire Advertiser Friday

A MUGGER tried to make it look as though she and her victim were waiting together for a bus after she ransacked her handbag.

This was what Stirling Sheriff Court heard on Wednesday after Charlene Webster (23), from Perth, admitted robbing a woman of £8 as she made her way home from Stirling’s Fubar nightclub on February 14.

The court was told that it was about 1am when the victim left the club and quickly became aware of being followed.

At a bus shelter on Cowane Street Webster then asked the woman for the time, and when she took her mobile phone out to see, grabbed her bag.

As the woman then began screaming for help, Webster told her to stop and said she would “come after” her if she called the police.

Concerned for her safety the woman handed the bag over and Webster removed a purse, taking £8.

The court was told the “accused had become aware of people watching from flats” nearby, and apparently told her victim to come to the bus stop with her and make it look as if they were both together.

Webster then walked away with the money. At Stirling police office she threatened to cause “serious physical harm” to her victim, who was able to identify her from a book of photographs.

Solicitor Steven Maguire, defending, said the remarks as detailed were “not particularly relevant to the circumstances of the offence” and that Webster denied making them.

He also asked that they be disregarded, though he added later: “I can assure the complainer as best I can that she has nothing to fear.”

“There were two people originally in custody in relation to this offence and Ms Webster’s position is that she was prevailed upon by a man to get involved in this to secure funds for drugs which they would share,” he said.

Describing her as “vulnerable”, he also said Webster was someone who was “suggestible and impressionable”.

Sheriff Raymond McMenamin told Webster he was “suspicious” of her version of events.

Giving her credit for apparent efforts to kick her heroin addiction though, he said he was persuaded not to send her to prison.

He made her the subject of an 18-month community payback order to include supervision, drug treatment and a compensation order of £8 to be paid to her victim.