Brazen ‘hug’ thief laughs at sufferer in courtroom and celebrates with ‘fortunate bonus’ scratchcard
Nerissa Powell was handed a community order after she hugged a Liverpool student and stole his £8,000 gold chain before selling it for £3,000 at a pawn shop in 2024
Nerissa Powell outside Liverpool Crown Court with the scratchcard(Image: Liverpool Echo)
A woman embraced a student making his way home from a night out in order to nick his gold chain, then flogged it for £3,000 at a pawn shop . . . and was then seen trying her luck on a scratch card after laughing about it in court.
Nerissa Powell chuckled and chatted with her victim before seizing the chance to swipe his jewellery, worth up to £8,000, whilst wrapping her arm around him.
However, after waking the following morning to discover his necklace missing, he embarked on some amateur sleuthing and managed to trace the stolen item to a pawnbrokers where it had been sold within hours of the theft.
During a hearing at Liverpool Crown Court, it emerged that university student Lewis Clayton, 21, was heading back to his halls of residence following a night out in Liverpool city centre at around 3am on September 21, 2024, reports the Liverpool Echo.
Having knocked back “six or seven alcoholic drinks”, he was then approached by Powell in the Islington area, with the 37 year old having “started talking to him and engaged in conversation with him”.
Derek Jones, prosecuting, outlined how the pair then went their separate ways briefly before another woman requested to use Mr Clayton’s phone, to which he agreed.
But the defendant, of Longmoor Lane in Fazakerley, then came back and began chatting to him once more. Mr Jones recounted: “He recalls laughing with her and her putting her arms around him and hugging him. At the time, Mr Clayton was wearing a clearly visible, heavy gold link chain around his neck.
“When he woke up the next morning, he realised that the chain was gone and realised that the female who was hugging him must have taken it from him in early hours of that morning. He had the wherewithal to realise that his phone had been used.
The police subsequently visited the mentioned pawn shop and unearthed CCTV footage showing Powell at the establishment later that same morning, flogging the gold chain for £3,000. Mr Clayton reported that the piece of jewellery, which was eventually returned to him, had been a gift from his parents and was valued at about £8,000, having also been insured for £14,000.
During questioning, Powell denied any part in the theft and informed detectives that she had “simply pawned the gold chain at the request of others”. She has a criminal record comprising 25 previous convictions for 44 offences, including theft, fraud and handling stolen goods as a youth, before a hiatus in her criminal record between April 2010 and December 2023.
Powell has since been involved in additional instances of shoplifting and possession of class A drugs, “clearly indicating acquisitive crime as result of long term class A drug addiction”. She also failed to show up for a previously scheduled sentencing hearing in the current case last October, remaining on the run for roughly two months before being apprehended in December, 2025.
Ken Heckle, defending said: “This lady has clearly been in an unstable situation over the past few months, perhaps even since she pleaded guilty just 10 days short of a year ago. The last occasion where she had not attended was out of pure fright and fear of what may happen, as her mum is very ill. She still looks after her mother, who is in end of life care.
“Her record, when one looks at it, there is that gap. From 2010 to 2023 was when she was in work. She lost her job, sadly, due to covid. When she is in work, she is not taking drugs and she is not committing any crime. It is a sad consequence.
“She is facing the music, finally. It may be that she is properly trying to do her best, as far as the family is concerned. If she has more help, that will assist her going forward. The submission is that she is capable of rehabilitation by that absence of convictions in the last 12 months and the fact that she is trying to resolve matters.”
Powell confessed to theft during magistrates’ court proceedings in January last year, while also subsequently entering a guilty plea to failing to surrender to bail.
Standing in the dock dressed in a black Superdry jacket over a grey hoodie, Powell received a two-year community order featuring a rehabilitation activity requirement of up to 25 days, a nine-month drug rehabilitation requirement and a building choices programme, alongside a £100 fine.
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