Robber caught out by iPhone 'tracker'
A thug who robbed a terrified newlywed in her car was today behind bars - after being tracked down by a mobile phone app.
Mcmorgan Wokoma, aged 45, beat up the victim before fleeing with her engagement and wedding rings. He also took her iPhone, which police used to track him down. They were given log-in details for the mobile and used them to activate an app called "Find My iPhone".
They then received a GPS message showing the location of the missing handset. This revealed that Wokoma, who fled on foot, was a mile away in Whitmore Reans. Officers rushed to the area and he was found in Tring Court at 2.35am on July 14.
He had struck at 1.20am on the car park of The Oddfellows pub in Compton, where the woman had stopped in her car for a cigarette on her way home from a night out, Wolverhampton Crown Court heard.
She had turned off the engine and was sitting in the dark when a man's head appeared through the open driver's side window. Prosecutor Alka Brigue said: "She screamed, started the car and tried to drive off but Wokoma grabbed the steering wheel, forcing the car to cash into a nearby wall."
He then climbed inside the car and warned the victim, who is in her 20s, that she would be raped and dumped in the boot if she did not hand over her possessions, the court was told.
She was repeatedly punched before handing over her platinum rings, worth £8,000 in total.
The court heard that the victim's mobile phone started to vibrate in her bag and Wokoma took that too before fleeing. The woman staggered into Bridgnorth Road to stop two passers-by who alerted police.
Wokoma, of no fixed address, admitted robbery. Jailing him for six years, Judge Martin Walsh said: "It was a terrifying ordeal."
