‘Pickpocket queen’ of Birmingham’ put back behind bars
ATHIEF dubbed by police as the “pickpocket Queen of Birmingham” is back behind bars after preying on female pensioners shopping in the city.
Margaret Johnson has now been convicted of an incredible 153 offences – including 93 for theft.
In her latest crime Johnson targeted a 76-year-old woman shopping in Lidl’s Tile Cross store on February 2 with her grandson who has Down’s syndrome.
CCTV caught the 40-year-old stalking her victims in the shop – and when the pensioner had her back turned she stepped in to swipe the handbag from inside a shopping trolley.
Police said the theft of the bag, which contained cash and bank cards had left the OAP ‘devastated’. It also contained a glass eye that belonged to her son who was killed in a car crash 30 years ago – and which she had carried around with her ever since.
Johnson was caught by police when she went to the Bullring – an area she’s banned from under the conditions of a Criminal Behaviour Order (CBO) secured as part of her last court conviction.
At Birmingham Crown Court she was jailed for two and a half years after admitting six thefts – including against a heavily pregnant woman and others aged 80 and breaching the CBO.
Sergeant Julia Slater, of West Midlands Police, said: “It’s hard to find words to describe Margaret Johnson. She is someone who thinks absolutely nothing about preying on the most vulnerable people in society and stealing money from them that they can ill-afford to lose.
“She deliberately targets elderly, lone female shoppers – people she considers easy targets – and when an opportunity arises she slyly swipes their bags or slips purses or mobile phones from pockets.
“Even by her own despicable standards she has stooped to new lows with these offences.” 84 – plus
Johnson was released on prison licence on January 18 this year but within just six days was back to her old habits.
On January 24 she struck at Lidl, in Mackadown Lane, Tile Cross, and made off with a 60-year-old woman’s handbag – and less than an hour later stole a mobile phone from the jacket pocket of another shopper in Chelmsley Wood’s Asda supermarket.
The next day she repeated the bag snatch trick on an 84-year-old lady in Aldi Castle Bromwich, Chester Road, and 24 hours later fled from Home Bargains in Stechford Retail Park with the pregnant woman’s phone. Her final bag-snatch victim – a lady aged 80 – was shopping in B&M Bargains, in Priory Queensway, on February 6 when Johnson pounced.
Her latest conviction also came with a CBO banning her from large parts of Birmingham city centre and from stores such as Poundland, Clarks, Iceland and Asda across the whole of the West Midlands.
Sgt Slater, added: “Breaching the order is a criminal offen – if any of our officers spot her in an area or store where she’s excluded from then she’ll be arrested and faces being sent back to prison.”
West Midlands Police Pickpocket Team is the only such specialist theft unit in the UK outside London and sees undercover officers posing as shoppers on the look-out for thieves, aggressive begging and suspicious activity.