Victim "raging" after Corby crook used card for spending spree

Robert Mould, 45, was jailed for 14 weeks after the incident in June - but the victim says she is surprised the sentence wasn't longer.

Mould, of Harrogate Court, admitted seven counts of fraud by false representation, possessing crack cocaine and going equipped for theft at Northampton Magistrates' Court on Thursday (October 31).

The victim, a 22-year-old woman who did not want to be named, had parked her Fiat outside her house in the town and put her handbag under her front seat.

The front passenger window was then smashed and the handbag was stolen. Eight contactless transactions, just below the £30 limit, were then made at a McColl's, a service station, two newsagents, two at Asda, a Premier store and a Co-op. The total spent was £213.41, much of it on cigarettes.

The victim told the Northants Telegraph: "I cancelled my cards and went into the shops that they had been used in.

"They showed me the CCTV and I saw who had done it.

"I was cleaning up the mess and he walked past my car when I remembered the hat logo. I called the police straight away and they arrested him.

"I was raging. I knew it would be an opportunist but it was scary."

She thought the case was going to be dropped until she was recently told he would be prosecuted.

Mould is already in prison after he was jailed for 48 weeks recently for a string of thefts and burglaries.

But the 14-week prison term he received on Thursday will run concurrently, meaning he will spend no extra time behind bars.

The victim, who didn't get her favourite handbag back, said: "I'm glad he's in prison but I thought it would be longer.

"It wasn't just the money he stole from me.

"The damage to my car cost £200, I had to replace my cards, take time off work to deal with it and it had a big impact it had on me."