Kingsbury father jailed for gym locker thefts

Court heard one victim had �60,000 Ferarri stolen and another lost �6,000 Rolex watch

A thief who targeted gym members by plundering their lockers as they worked out has been jailed for two years.

Kawser Ali, 22, of Kingsbury Road, Kingsbury, specialised in targeting Virgin Active gyms where combinations are used to secure lockers.

The Old Bailey heard he memorised the digits as members entered them - then stole their valuables while they were exercising.

Jurors were told one victim returned to the car park to find a thief had driven off in his �60,000 yellow Ferrari in December 2009, another had his Peugeot worth �9,000 stolen in April last year.

In another case a gym member had �6,000 Rolex watch taken out of locker.

Ali found some members used the same number as their PIN, enabling him to take �1,000 form one of his victim’s bank account.

Ali was arrested in October last year.

The court heard the father-of-two had started stealing to provide for his family and then ‘just could not stop himself.’

He has a string of previous convictions for offences including theft from gyms and was in breach of a six month suspended sentence for handling stolen goods.

He admitted seven counts of theft and one count of possessing an article for use in fraud.

Jailing him for two years, Judge Mrs Recorder Rosamund Horwood-Smart said: “You carried out a campaign of dishonesty over a number of months.

You preyed upon the users of the gyms who had locked away their valuables and you took advantage of the fact you were able to work out the codes they were putting into their lockers.

“Using the frailty of human nature you were able to use that same code to access accounts in certain circumstances.”

The judge did not activate Ali’s suspended sentence.