Nottingham phone thieves distracted victims by dancing

Two "brazen and calculated" pickpockets who danced with people on nights out while stealing their mobile phones have been jailed.

Police said Abdul Boychaala, 30, and Hussen Ehab, 26, both of Waterloo Promenade, Radford, mostly preyed on students and pretended to be drunk to distract their targets in Nottingham and Liverpool between 18 January and 13 September.

After locking legs with victims and forcing them off-balance, the pair would remove phones from their pockets and leave the scene, Nottinghamshire Police added.

The pair each admitted conspiracy to steal at Nottingham Crown Court and were both jailed for 28 months.

Det Con Richard Evans said: "Boychaala and Ehab are brazen and calculating thieves who were led by their own greed and recklessness to commit a string of very serious offences.

"Their preferred method may have appeared clumsy, but it was a finely-honed and effective distraction technique that allowed them to steal many thousands of pounds worth of mobile phones."

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