A MAN who stole nearly £1,000 in handbag contents from one woman and dragged another across a street in a failed attempt to take her bag will be sentenced next month.

Jeremy Robb, 28, of Kemerton Walk in Park South, stood in the dock at Swindon Magistrates’ Court on Wednesday and indicated guilty pleas to charges of attempted robbery and theft.

The court heard Robb made his first attempt on October 30 last year, when a woman was walking down an alleyway between Curtis Street and the footpath at the rear of Tennyson Street.

Robb approached the woman from behind and asked for her handbag before pulling her to the floor and dragging her as she clung on to the strap.

Pauline Lambert, for the prosecution, said: “Alfreda Wnuska was making her way back to home address and carrying bags of shopping, as well as her handbag.

“She turned into the alleyway which leads to the footpath through Cambria Park.

“She then heard a voice from behind her which said: ‘your handbag, madam.’ Somebody then attempts to take her handbag.

“Somebody was trying to forcibly take it from her grip.

“She was pulled on to the floor and dragged for two to three metres.

“He eventually lets go and runs off.

“She has injuries as a result of her fall.”

After that failed attempt, Robb returned to the scene on November 8, where he crept up to another woman on the path from behind and successfully snatched her bag, which contained her iPad and mobile phone worth £938.

“Maria Valente walks every day, using the canal walk,” said Ms Lambert.

“On this day she walks with shopping in a bag and her handbag on her left shoulder.

“She felt the handbag coming off her left shoulder and she sees the male running off.”

Attempted robbery is too severe an offence for sentencing by magistrates, so the case, including the second charge of theft, was transferred to Swindon Crown Court.

Sanbreem Arif, representing Robb, said her client would formally enter a guilty plea at the hearing on May 15, when a judge will sentence him for the two offences.

Jonathan Chappell, the chairman of the magistrates, said: “You will be released on conditional bail and are to attend an early guilty plea hearing on May 15.

“You are not to contact Craig Maddox or any victims or prosecution witnesses.”