MEN who robbed children as they walked to school were sentenced to over three years in custody last week.
The sentences also covered the robbery of a pizza delivery man who two of the men tricked before taking his pizza, mobile phone and cash.
Nathan Ward, 21, of Purley and Xavier Bennett, 20, of Catford, tried to rob a 13-year-old boy of his mobile phone in The Grove, Coulsdon, as he walked to school at 7.45 am on May 23 last year.
Later that day Bennett robbed a 15-year-old boy, also on his way to school, of his mobile phone in the same road.
Police were called and after speaking to witnesses and analysing CCTV footage they identified Ward, who was arrested the same day. He was charged on May 24 with one count of robbery and one count of attempted robbery.
Two days later, on May 26, Bennett handed himself in to Croydon Police station and was also charged with one count of robbery and one count of attempted robbery.
Just two months earlier, on March 21, Ward robbed a pizza delivery man with Levi Rose, 18, of Coulsdon.
The pair ordered a pizza for an address in Coulsdon. But when the driver, a man in his fifties, got there at 11.40pm the residents of the house told him they had not ordered the food.
The driver went back to his car where Ward and Rose, who had placed the order, were waiting for him. The men robbed him of the pizza, his mobile phone and around £60 cash.
Detectives from Croydon CID found Ward owned the phone used to make the fast food order and arrested him at home in the early hours of April 1.
Ward initially claimed other people had used his phone to make the order while he was at Rose's house and denied knowledge of the robbery.
But officers who analysed his phone proved he was involved and Ward was charged with one count of robbery on May 3.
Rose was first arrested on April 10 and denied being involved in the robbery of the delivery driver. But he was arrested again on June 19 when he was charged with one count of robbery.
Last Friday (January 16) Ward and Rose were sentenced to 18 months and 12 months in a Young Offenders Institute and Bennett was sentenced to 15 months in prison.
DC Billy Clough, from Croydon police, said: "I am pleased with the outcome of our investigation and the punishment imposed on all these defendants. They were forced to admit their involvement in these offences due to the evidence we were able to gather which implicated them in the robberies.
"I hope that these sentences act as a deterrent to other people who may be tempted to commit similar offences and show that we will relentlessly pursue those who commit robberies to bring them to justice."
