Teenager jailed after robbing man’s gold necklace at central London Tube station

A teenager has been jailed after following a man off of a train in central London and robbing him of his gold necklace.

Mamadou Bah, 19, was sentenced to three years imprisonment at Warwick Crown Court having pleaded guilty to robbery at an earlier hearing.

The incident occurred at around 4.30am on Saturday December 20, 2025, when Bah noticed another man asleep on the carriage of a Central Line train.

Spotting the man’s gold chain necklace, Bah followed him off when he woke up and got off at Chancery Lane Underground station.

He then grabbed the man's collar from behind, and managed to tear the gold necklace off his neck, breaking the clasp in the process.

However, the victim refused to let Bah leave, restraining him near the station’s escalators, and a few minutes later station staff attended and contacted British Transport Police (BTP).

Officers separated the pair before searching Bah, who was found to have two gold chains, including the one he took from the victim.

Bah was arrested and taken to custody, and claimed that he was fighting with the victim in self-defence when interviewed by police.

Mamadou Bah has been jailed for three years

BTP

However, when shown footage of himself grabbing the chain from the victim, Bah remained silent and refused to answer any further questions.

He was later charged before pleading guilty in July this year.

BTP Detective Constable Annika Liparoti said: "I'm very pleased with the result in this case. Bah thought that he had spotted an easy pay day, but he will instead enjoy an extended stay behind bars as a consequence of his actions.

"Our officers work tirelessly across the railway network throughout the year to detect and deter robbery offences, utilising plain clothes assets in combination with uniformed patrols to catch offenders and secure justice for victims as we did in this case.

"We take every report of robbery extremely seriously, and I urge anyone who is the victim of or witness to a robbery to report it to us by texting 61016 or by speaking to a member of staff. We'll do everything that we can to secure justice for you, as we did for the victim in this case."