Robber who posed as ‘good samaritan’ jailed for 30 months after pushing 92-year-old to the floor to steal £5

Victim, Stanley Evans, 92, said that his attacker should be punished for 'abusing his strength'

Solomon Bygraves attacks pensioner Stanley Evans (Met Police)

A robber in London who knocked over a 92-year-old pensioner so that he could steal just £5 has been jailed for a total of 30 months.

Solomon Bygraves, 29, was convicted at Southwark Crown Court on Monday after CCTV showed the robber gain access to Stanley Evans block of flats in Soho by offering to help Evans with his shopping bags.

Bygraves is then filmed pushing Evans violently onto the floor and stealing his wallet in an attack that the judge, Andrew Mitchell QC, said “could have killed” the 92-year-old.

Evans was eventually able to get to his feet after 10 minutes and called 999.

In his victim statement, Evans said that he believed Bygraves should be punished for “abusing his strength”.

“He tried to con me by offering to help me with my bags, I believe purely to get into the block of flats to rob me.

“I believe the public would be served for him to be in prison for a long time for his cowardly attack.”

Prosecutor Richard Sedgwick told the court: “Mr Bygraves is an exceedingly large man. There appears to be some evidence of targeting - the age and the size difference point to that.”

Bygraves has previous convictions for 49 different offences including two for robbery and was on bail when he committed the robbery.

He admitted in a letter to the judge that this attack was “most horrible, horrific, shameful crime” he had ever committed.