A thug mugged a terrified mother for her handbag as she walked along a street with her five-year-old son, a court heard.

The victim had been visiting a friend in Chatham and was heading along Hill Terrace towards Dale Street in the early evening of March 21 this year.

As she approached an alleyway she was aware of somebody behind her.

Her bag, containing £300 cash, bank cards and a mobile phone, was on her shoulder and she felt tugging on the strap.

She tried to hold onto it but the robber managed to grab it an run off up Maidstone Road.

“As it took place from behind, she didn’t see the mugger’s face,” prosecutor Donna East told Maidstone Crown Court.

“She could only describe his clothes.”

She went to the nearby train station and asked a taxi driver to call the police, but he refused and directed her to a phone box.

The culprit, Jason Malloy, was arrested after he used one of the bank cards at stores by the contactless method almost immediately afterwards and was identified from CCTV footage.

"Your victim was vulnerable as a sole woman with a child walking in the dark" - Judge David Griffith-Jones

Miss East said the 24-year-old, of Ansell Avenue, Chatham, at first claimed he had been at home at the time. He then said he went out to get “weed”.

But he finally admitted robbery and two fraud offences.

The victim told in a victim statement how she and her son had since been affected. She said her child was now scared and anxious.

Louise Oakley, defending, said Malloy, who has previous convictions for assault, theft, criminal damage and burglary, was at the time unemployed, sleeping on park benches and short of money.

Jailing him for two years, Judge David Griffith-Jones QC said: “On any view this was a serious offence, liable to have caused the victim great distress

“Your victim was vulnerable as a sole woman with a child walking in the dark.

"The greatest mitigation lies in your guilty pleas.”

Malloy was sentenced to 18 months for robbery and fraud and six months consecutive for being in breach of a suspended sentence.”

Investigating officer DC Ian Mather said: "Malloy launched this attack when his victim was isolated and vulnerable.

"Thanks to her immediate call to the police, we were able to quickly get to the area and begin inquiries.

"Malloy was subsequently identified and arrested. I hope his sentence will provide some solace to the victim."