Judge brands Bosnian "despicable" for robbing Coventry OAP

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A pickpcket who stole £1,000 from an 88-year-old Coventry Blitz survivor was branded “mean and despicable” by a judge.



Samantha Hadzic pounced at Coventry’s Pool Meadow bus station last August after stalking Joan Boneham through the city centre.

Referring to the Coventry Blitz as he jailed her for 20 months, Recorder Michael Elsom said: “Over 70 years ago this city was targeted by a foreign power.

“You have rather done the same – not from the air, but from the ground.”

Mrs Boneham, of Canley, has poor eyesight following a stroke, and needs a walker to get around because of painful leg ulcers, Coventry Crown Court heard.

Hadzic, 21, who Birmingham, admitted theft.

The judge heard the Bosnian gypsy came to the UK in 2005 and now has three children with her partner.

She has no qualifications, cannot read or write, and is unemployed.

She has at least five previous convictions for similar offences, where she targeted OAPs in the street and in charity shops across England and Wales.

Recorder Elsom said: “Hardly a year has passed since you arrived in this country without you committing offences of theft.

“You have toured this country to commit mean and despicable offences.

“I am driven to say that I do not find that the sentencing guidelines cover the case which is before me.

“You and people like you must understand that people who make their way around this country stealing from the vulnerable will go to prison for long periods.”

The court heard Mrs Boneham, who last year spoke to the Telegraph about her ordeal, had caught the bus into town on Saturday, August 6, and withdrew money from two banks.

It was while in one of the banks that Hadzic and two female accomplices, who have never been traced, watched her put the cash away before tailing her through the city centre to Pool Meadow.

As Hadzic holds the entrance doors open, one of the others bends down and swipes two cash-filled envelopes from Mrs Boneham’s shopping bag.

The widow only realised her money was missing a few minutes later when she went to pay for a coffee in the bus station cafe.

Hadzic was arrested by eagle-eyed undercover officers in Coventry city centre on October 13 after they recognised her from CCTV footage of the earlier incident.

John Attwood, defending, said: “There was no violence, there was no confrontation. At least she had the decency to plead guilty at the first opportunity.”

Hadzic had been on remand for four months, which will count towards her sentence.

The court heard Hadzic’s family had raised £1,000 to repay Mrs Boneham.

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Pickpocket victim: 'I survived the Blitz but this has knocked me for six. I cry myself to sleep every night'

COVENTRY Blitz survivor Joan Boneham always prided herself on her independence and positive outlook on life.

Refusing to let her disabilities or advancing years hold her back, she often caught the bus into town and loved to chat to her friends in the street.

At other times, the 88-year-old widow would look back on her long and eventful life as a hard-working member of society with a glowing sense of satisfaction.

She helped raise a family with her late husband, worked for GEC for many years, and was honoured by the city council for clocking up 50 years in the voluntary sector.

But all she can think of these days is the moment three cruel pickpockets not only stole her hard-earned money, but robbed her of her dignity and confidence, and what little good health she had left.

She now cries herself to sleep, rarely goes out and is on anti-depressants.

In a powerful and moving victim impact statement read out to the court by the prosecutor, Mrs Boneham, now aged 88, wrote: “I have always classed myself as a hard-working, kind and caring person.

“I am a fiercely independent 88-year-old who copes with what life throws at me, at least that’s what I thought.

“This theft has knocked me for six. My confidence is the lowest it’s been in my life.

“I am a proud woman: I worked in the wages department for GEC for many years, I survived the Blitz and I proudly received an award from the mayoress of Coventry a few years ago.

“This award was a token of the city’s appreciation in regard to my 50 years of voluntary work when I cared for the elderly and infirm of Coventry.

“I took comfort in the thought I was making a difference.

"I enjoyed my voluntary work, it gave a purpose to my life.

“Unfortunately the events of August 6 have changed my personality, and my health has deteriorated severely.

“I close my eyes and relive the feeling of anxiety and sickness in the pit of my stomach.

“How could they target someone who was clearly elderly and infirm, and who clearly needed the money she had withdrawn?

“I use my wheeled walking frame to help me walk – they just saw it as a person to target.

“I no longer enjoy going out, I no longer stop to chat to people in queues, I no longer trust anyone.

“I now have panic and anxiety attacks which have resulted in my having to take anti-depressants.

“I cry myself to sleep every night thinking about the theft of my money.

“My mind is always full of the events of that day.”