A “determined” street robber has been locked up for 32 months for injuring a marketing manager by dragging her along the road as she clung to her handbag.

Zedenek Olah, 20, was seen “smiling broadly” as he and his 17-year-old accomplice fled with two stolen bags, Bradford Crown Court heard yesterday.

Olah, of Regency View, Undercliffe , Bradford, pleaded guilty to robbing Margaret Slater of her handbag in Church Bank, Bradford, on August 24.

The teenager is due to be dealt with at the city’s Youth Court.

Prosecutor Philip Adams said Mrs Slater had been shopping in the city centre in her lunch break.

At about 2pm, she was pushed from behind by the 17-year-old, who grabbed her carrier bag.

Olah seized hold of her leather handbag, but she kept hold of it with both hands and was pulled over and dragged along the road.

She was eventually forced to let go and had to be treated by a paramedic for grazing to her arm and both knees.

Mr Adams said a man nearby heard Mrs Slater’s screams and saw the robbers running off with big smiles on their faces.

Mrs Slater was dishevelled and distressed. She had blood on her face and her clothes were torn.

Olah and the teenager were pursued by the police and found hiding in bushes.

Olah had Mrs Slater’s phone with him and her handbag, £120 in cash and her stolen credit cards were found concealed nearby.

Mr Adams said the defendant made no comment when the police interviewed him.

Olah’s solicitor advocate, Ray Singh, said his client was from a respectable family.

He had been in work since coming to the UK in 2004. It was an opportunist robbery and he did not mean to hurt Mrs Slater.

“It was a sheer moment of madness on his part,” Mr Singh told the court.

A letter from Olah, intended for Mrs Slater, told of his sorrow and remorse and hope that she could forgive him in time.

Judge Robert Bartfield said it was a determined robbery that must have been a terrible experience for Mrs Slater.

“You would not give up, you pulled so hard to the handbag that the lady went to the ground until she let go,” he told Olah.