A breathless phone call by a street robber helped link him to the scene of his crime for which he’s been jailed for three years.

18 year old Maurice Lennon from The Greenway, Hounslow was subject to a youth rehabilitation order and curfew when he robbed his 50-year-old woman victim as she walked home from work in March last year.

It was 8.30 pm, she’d just got off a outside West Thames College when she heard footsteps behind her.

As she turned around Lennon punched her in the head.

He then grabbed her handbag which was over her shoulder and as she struggled to keep hold of it and the two shopping bags she was carrying, Lennon then punched her in the mouth and on her ear.

Lennon wrestled the bag from her and ran off.

Lennon was captured on numerous CCTV cameras in and around the area where the victim was robbed.

When Lennon’s phone was analysed officers found he’d made a call to a local cab company four minutes after the robbery from Moreton Avenue where the handbag was later found.

He sounded breathless.

He pleaded guilty to robbery at Isleworth Crown Court on Monday, 9 February 2015.

DC Darren Young, from Hounslow CID said:

This was a terrifying ordeal for Lennon’s victim. She was punched in the head three times just so he could steal her handbag. The ferocity of Lennon’s attack could have left her with far more serious injuries.

Fortunately, she has now recovered physically, but mentally this was frightening experience which left her with a bloodied face and dizziness. Lennon will now be off the streets of Hounslow and hopefully this conviction illustrates we will pursue criminals using all possible means available.