A man has been convicted of robbery after a vicious attack on a couple as they walked home from their local pub.
Robert Ure denied being part of a group wearing hooded tops and tracksuits who set upon the couple and stole the woman’s handbag.
But the jury at Preston Crown Court unanimously found Ure, 24, guilty of the robbery in Woodplumpton Road, Ashton on Ribble.
During the trial the court heard how the couple had enjoyed a night out together in the Lane Ends pub on November 25.
They left shortly after midnight and started to walk home along Woodplumpton Road but as they reached the junction with Drakes Croft they encountered a group of youths approaching on the same side of the pavement.
The man told his partner: “This could be trouble” and as they passed the group he felt a blow to his face with what he thought was a metal bar.
He fell to the floor but as he looked up he saw his partner being dragged into the road, kicking and screaming, by her hair.
The group started to make their way off but one man came back and snatched the woman’s handbag.
Ure, of Pinfold Street, Preston, was picked out of identity proceedings a few days after the attack but he always denied being involved in the robbery.
During a three day trial at Preston Crown Court he told the jury he had never heard of Woodplumpton Road and had spent the evening drinking in Bamber Bridge.
But Ian Durston, prosecuting, said: “You were in Woodplumpton Road, wearing your dark tracksuit and your dark jacket with the hood up.
“You saw an opportunity to look like a big man in front of your friends.
When you were making your escape you thought ‘I’ll have that bag too’.”
However the jury did not believe Ure’s version of his events and convicted him of robbery after four hours of deliberations.