A handbag thief was brought to justice after the owner's friend used a mobile tracking device to pinpoint the victim's missing mobile phone.

At Carlisle's Rickergate magistrates' court, Charles Stewart Hodgson, 46, of Silloth Street in the city, entered a guilty plea to stealing a handbag belonging to Susan Mill in Penrith in February.

Magistrates fined him £100.

Pam Ward, prosecuting, described how Miss Miller had enjoyed a night out with friends before catching the last train back to Carlisle.

She recalled having a small clutch bag with her on the platform in Penrith.

But while she was on the train she realised the bag was missing. Inside it was £100 cash, cosmetics, her bank cards and her iPhone.

Mrs Ward said: “Her friend used her phone to try to find [the victim's] phone. It showed the phone was nearby.”

The victim and her friend were met by a police officer at Carlisle rail station and the three continued using the friend's phone to search for the missing iPhone, eventually finding it had been left next to a lamp-post on the pavement outside the station.

“CCTV footage established that the defendant had been the male who had placed the phone near to the lamp-post,” said the prosecutor.

When interviewed by police, Hodgson said he had found the bag on a bench at Penrith railway station and picked it up, intending to hand it in.

But he said he had seen the victim's boyfriend searching the train for the missing handbag and felt intimidated.

“He couldn't explain why he hadn't handed the bag over to staff in Carlisle,” added Mrs Ward.

“He admitted taking out the phone and putting it on the pavement.

“He threw the bag and its contents over the side [of a bridge], presumably into the river.

"He said he was remorseful for what he had done and made full admissions.”

Hodgson, whose criminal record included no previous offences of dishonesty, said the victim's boyfriend had been very aggressive as he looked for the missing handbag, saying he would kick in the head of whoever had taken the bag.

“I just panicked,” he said.

As well as imposing the fine, magistrates ordered the defendant to pay his victim compensation of £200, as well as court costs of £85 and a £30 victim surcharge.