Don’t put me in jail, I’m a child, claimed bearded watch thief
A BEARDED illegal immigrant who mugged victims of watches worth nearly £100,000 tried to avoid prison by insisting he was still a child.
But despite convincing police he was just 17, Bilal Sennousni has now been jailed for 18 months after a sceptical youth court judge brought in specialists to assess his physical appearance.
They concluded the Tunisian thief was at least 21. Sennousni, who has a trimmed moustache and beard, had been part of a gang that targeted wealthy residents in affluent parts of London.
On September 13 he was caught redhanded with a £75,000 Richard Mille watch that had been snatched from a Norwegian millionaire in Mayfair, and was then linked to a mugging two weeks earlier, when an £ 18,000 Hublot Big Bang watch was wrenched from his victim near Harrods in Knightsbridge.
He then tried to convince officers he was a vulnerable 17-year-old who had been ordered to steal the watch by a friend.
Scotland Yard accepted he was a teenager as they could not find any birth records for Sennousni, who entered the UK illegally in June 2018.
However, when he appeared at a Highbury Youth Court in north London to plead guilty to two charges of robbery, District Judge Susan Williams ordered an age assessment, which included a quiz on his migration history.
When his real age emerged, she sent him to crown court for sentencing and ordered that he be transferred from a youth detention centre to an adult prison, saying: ‘Following the assessment – and indeed from looking at you in the dock today – I deem you to be not less than 21 years of age.’
It was only when the matter was sent to Isleworth Crown Court last week that Sennousni finally changed his date of birth and admitted he is 21, and Judge Nicholas Wood jailed him for 18 months.
However, following the sentencing, Scotland Yard refused
‘I deem you to be not less than 21’
to release his photograph as it still listed him as a youth on its records. But today Sennousni can finally be identified after the Daily Mail pointed out that automatic youth reporting restrictions no longer applied.
In court, Judge Wood said to Sennousni: ‘You were part of a group in an affluent area of London where you targeted your victim.’
Justin McClintock, defending, said: ‘He worked as a kitchen porter and delivery driver until he ran into some trouble in the summer of last year and committed these very ugly offences.
‘He has expressed remorse to me today and told me he is very sorry and ashamed of his behaviour.’