GRANDMOTHER Lillian Maughan outwitted a pickpocket who stole her purse containing £95, a court was told yesterday.
She felt the thief brush against her on an escalator as she shopped with her family in Hartlepool.
When she discovered her purse gone from her handbag she accused Carl Hudson, 19, standing behind her, said Anne Gamble, prosecuting.
He denied it so Mrs Maughan asked if she could search him and he agreed.
She found the purse in the back of the lining of his jacket, Teesside Crown Court heard.
Sentence was deferred for six months on Hudson of Easington Road, Hartlepool, who pleaded guilty to theft at the Middleton Grange shopping centre on May 17.
He also admitted stealing a mountain bike worth £150 on June 27.
Jamie Hill, mitigating, said that, pending sentence, Hudson would return to his new job as a trainee chef in a take-away shop
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