Thief snatched sat nav from hospital car park as health worker tended to patients
A hospital car park thief who snatched a sat nav from a healthcare assistant’s car as they tended to sick patients has been jailed for 13 months.
Elsworth Watson stole the Tom Tom from the car parked at Sandwell General Hospital while the staff member was on duty, Wolverhampton Crown Court heard.
The 43-year-old came before Judge Nicholas Cartwright, who condemned the thief for carrying out the ‘particularly mean offence’ while armed with a kitchen knife.
Judge Cartwright added: “Everybody who looks at a newspaper, listens to the radio, watches the TV or hears what’s going on in their community, knows that knives cause untold damage.
“People get injured very seriously and sometimes killed through the use of knives. You had no legitimate reason to be carrying a kitchen knife around.”
The healthcare assistant discovered Watson had smashed his way into the car and taken the sat nav in the early hours of the morning, prosecutor Nicholas Smith said.
Watson was later spotted on CCTV in the car park grasping a bag before two police officers on duty at the hospital decided to search the area.
The thief was seen in nearby Law Street carrying the carrier bag but attempted to flee.
Officers managed to catch up with Watson, who had discarded the carrier bag under a car in Bernard Street, as well as the 13cm blade, the court heard on Friday.
Defence barrister David Munro said Watson, who had convictions dating back to 1994, had gone to the hospital with his friend.
He scoured the car park for an item he could sell for cash to buy food after a friend looking after his £370-worth of benefits had ‘squandered’ the money, the barrister said.
Watson, of Whitehall Road, Handsworth, Birmingham, had the blade with him but did not produce it, the court was told.
Mr Munro added: "He fully accepts that he should not have stolen. He fully accepts that he should not have had the kitchen knife with him."
The defendant, who suffers from bipolar disorder, admitted theft and having an article with a blade or a point between July 11 and 14.
He was in breach of a 28-week sentence, suspended for 18 months, handed to him for possession of cannabis and two counts of theft from a motor – which was activated in full by the judge.
