A thief was caught wearing the trainers he’d stolen from a hotel guest, along with her handbag, passport and MacBook Pro. Sindiso Ncube, 25, sneaked into the Edwardian Hotel in Manchester city centre and hopped into a lift to the ninth floor.
After trying every door, he managed to open one and stole a handbag belonging to an American businesswoman who had popped out for the evening. He also took her passport, trainers, laptop, iPad and $2,000, Manchester Crown Court heard. The total value of goods taken was £6,550.
She returned later that night, on January 24 this year, and was overwhelmed to find she’d been burgled and concerned about being in a foreign country without her passport. Using a tracker on her phone, the iPad was located nearby.
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With the help from the night manager at the hotel, the pair ventured to Piccadilly Gardens where they found the handbag with Ncube.
Prosecutor William Staunton said. “He became quite aggressive towards them. He brazenly sought to claim the property was his and said: 'get off, that’s mine'.
“She recognised the sneakers that were hers were now being worn by the defendant. He claimed they were his, though a size too small.”
Inside the bag were his old trainers, Mr Staunton added. The woman hailed two passing police officers who arrested Ncube.
He was said to have previous convictions for ‘walk-in’ thefts. The prosecutor said there was a degree of planning, in that he had gone to the hotel with no legitimate reason to do so.
Mr Staunton added that Ncube must have followed one of the guests into a lift, which is usually operated using a fob.
Mitigating, Graham Rishton said: “There must have been some element of planning, there was some element of tailgating. It was not particularly sophisticated. Fortunately, she got everything back.”
He added that Ncube had been an economics student at Leeds university but experienced ‘something of a sad demise’ after becoming addicted to cocaine. He left his course after two years and has since found himself before the courts, he said.
“He tells me he is horrified by his actions and says ‘this is not the type of person I want to be’.” Mr Rishton apologised to the woman on his behalf.
Sentencing, the judge, Recorder Paul Reid KC said the woman was ‘overwhelmed and anxious’ following the burglary, due to loss of her passport.
He said he understood the money would be spent funding Ncube’s ‘cocaine habit’, stating: “You began taking this at university, and it has blighted your life ever since.”
Ncube, of no fixed abode, was jailed for 20 months.
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