Mugger continued crimes despite being on bail

A mugger who struck twice while on bail for another robbery has been jailed after he was caught through saliva he left at the scene of one of his crimes.

Matewos Tesfamicael, 19, of Priory Park Road, Kilburn, attacked Hungarian screenwriter Andras Forgacs as he walked home along Regent’s Canal in Camden on November 25, last year.

Blackfriars Crown Court heard how Tesfamicael grabbed Mr Forgacs and demanded his valuables.

Mr Forgacs, a successful writer of feature films in his homeland, managed to get free from Tesfamicael and two accomplices and run away.

Tesfamicael spat at the scene and was later traced through a DNA match of his saliva.

He was already on bail for a previous robbery on September 2 last year when he and another man ambushed a woman at the block of flats where she lived in Adelaide Road, Camden.

The pair wrenched the woman’s phone from her grasp but the victim then chased the thieves until she saw them get on a bus.

The pair were arrested by police in December last year, after they were spotted on the bus’ CCTV.

Tesfamicael turned to crime yet again on February 4 this year while on bail when he and another man targeted Russian Rimas Klimasauskas on the same canal path in Camden where Mr Forgacs was robbed.

Mr Klimasauskas gave the bandits his laptop but then pursued the muggers and called police, who found them hiding in a garden having ditched the laptop in a bin.

Tesfamicael admitted two counts of robbery, one of attempted robbery and one of handling stolen goods and was jailed for four years.

Two other men both admitted one charge of robbery and were jailed for 18 months each.