Ealing police have secured the conviction of a man who robbed a 44 year old man in Acton, just eight days after the offence took place.

In the early hours of Tuesday 12th April 2005 the victim, a 44 year old male, returned to his home in Willcott Road, Acton.

Sometime after this he was woken by a knock on his door. He dressed and opened the door and saw two males whose names he did not know, but recognised them having seen them on previous occasions in the Acton area. They both appeared friendly and therefore the victim invited them in.

After watching a film for about half an hour one of the men, Sharif, stood up and walked over to the TV, lent behind it and unplugged the victim’s DVD player and Philips video player.

The victim realising that he was trying to steal his belongings stood up and challenged Sharif, who started to fight with him.

The victim managed to block the doorway in order to stop the suspects escaping, but continued scuffling with them as they tried to leave.

After scuffling for a minute or two the unidentified suspect produced a knife with a 10-inch blade and told the victim to get out the way, which he did, as he was terrified. The unidentified suspect then picked up the victims jacket and followed Sharif who was carrying the DVD player and video.

The next day, the victim saw Sharif in Acton and, having recognised him, alerted two Police Community Support Officers, who arrested Sharif and took him to Southall Police Station.  He pleaded guilty to robbery and was sentence to two years imprisonment on April 21st.

Ealing Borough Detective Superintendent Chris Foster said, "This conviction will send a clear message to those committing street crime on Ealing Borough that there is a greater chance of being arrested, charged and brought before the courts and sentenced to a prison term for this offence.

This conviction process only took eight days and will go some way to reassuring the community that we fully focused on taking these offenders off our streets and transferring the fear of street crime from the victim to the offender.

Finally, street robbers tend to be opportunistic – don’t make yourself an easy target, keep valuables out of sight whenever possible and when you do have to take your phone or cash out in a public place, be aware of who’s around you.”

May 3rd, 2005