Robber pointed 'gun' after phone snatch

A teenage robber who pointed an imitation handgun at a pursuer after stealing a phone from a girl in a Black Country park has been locked up for more than three years.

Kaiwan Kadir grabbed the mobile from the 17-year-old and ran off after asking to look at her text messages, just two days after receiving a suspended sentence for attacking a bus with a hammer, Wolverhampton Crown Court heard yesterday.

Her boyfriend gave chase through Harry Mitchell Park, Smethwick, where there were other members of the public including children.

Prosecutor Mark Rees said: "The defendant then turned round, pulled out a gun and pointed it at his pursuer while appearing to cock it."

Kadir was known to the girl and after police had been told about the incident they went to his home in Linchmere Road, Hands-worth where they discovered the missing mobile but could find no trace of the gun.

John Evans, defending, said the missing weapon was an imitation capable of firing plastic pellets which was not loaded when produced in the park and had since been "disposed of."

Two days before the December 4 incident in the park Iraq-born Kadir had been given a 12 month suspended period of detention after trying to smash the windows of a bus in Birmingham City Centre with a hammer when he and other youths were accused of travelling on forged passes.

Judge Nicholas Webb told him: "That was an atrocious display of violence which put people in fear, but just two days after being sentenced you stole a mobile phone and pointed a gun that anybody looking at would not have known was imitation. This was a nasty crime."

Kadir was given 27 months detention in a young offenders institution for possessing an imitation firearm with intent to cause fear of violence and the robbery of the phone with a further 12 months added with the implementation of the suspended sentence making a total term of three years three months behind bars.

When released he could be deported back to his native Iraq.