An 'unsophisticated' robber knocked a man unconscious before using his bank card to buy a takeaway.
Kyle Thompson, 30, attacked his innocent victim as the man made his way home from a rugby match at Leigh Sports Village on the evening of Friday May 5.
Bolton Crown Court heard how the man had simply been walking down Brewery Lane.
Roger Brown, prosecuting, said: “A few seconds later he felt a blow to the back of his head and turned round to face the defendant.
“He did not know him but describes him as having his hood up and wearing a light coloured jacket.”
He was knocked unconscious and when he came to found that his wallet and bank card had been taken.
He cancelled the bank card but not before Thompson managed to make an illegal purchase.
Mr Brown told the court that Thompson, of Bengal Street, Leigh, then used the card to buy a takeaway meal, saying “I’m just going to try it, I’m not sure its going to work.”
He then abandoned the wallet which was found by a helpful member of the public and returned to its rightful owner.
Thompson was arrested on May 12 and brought before the magistrates court the next day where he at first indicated not guilty pleas.
But he eventually admitted to robbery and fraud for use of the bank card at a later hearing in the crown court.
Sacha Waxman, defending, said that Thompson, who has 17 previous convictions for 24 offences and appeared via video link from prison, now accepted that his attack was “entirely unprovoked.”
She said: “In the process he lost his temper, he ‘saw red’ in his description.”
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She added that Thompson had used the bank card “on the spur of the moment” before abandoning it again and that this was an “unplanned, unsophisticated” robbery.
But the Honorary Recorder for Bolton Judge Martin Walsh reminded the court that Thompson had seriously affected his victim.
Addressing the defendant, he said: “This was a street robbery, in which you stole a wallet.”
Judge Walsh sentenced Thompson to a total of three years in prison.
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