SOFTWARE on a stolen mobile phone helped track down a thief after he swiped a sports bag containing valuables from a women's changing room.
The Find My iPhone application led police that same day to Daniel Moore's home in South Street, Derby – where officers discovered the sports bag stolen from Willow Sports Centre.
A court heard how the bag had been used to store the purses, phones and keys of a group of women who were playing a game of netball at the city centre sports venue, in Willow Row.
It was told how the iPhone, which contained the security app, was found shoved in a toilet-brush container in Moore's house.
But it heard how a large amount of the items were not recovered, including some of the women's house keys.
The court heard Moore was arrested and taken into custody but, the following day, the woman whose iPhone tracked Moore down had her home in Allenton burgled.
Sentencing Moore, Judge Jonathan Gosling said: "What you did was serious enough but it had dreadful consequences for your victim."
Moore, 25, admitted theft. Emma Hodgson, in mitigation, said: "The defendant feels absolutely dreadful that she suffered a burglary because of what he did and it put her in financial difficulties."
Derby Crown Court, sitting at Southern Derbyshire Magistrates' Court, heard that Moore was currently detained at Kingsway Hospital under the mental health act. He had been given a hospital order in May 2012 after he was convicted of attempted robbery.
He had been released from that but was re-admitted following the theft on September 9.
Judge Gosling said: "You are in fact detained under a hospital order and will be detained for some time. No order from this court can remove you from hospital, so it is beyond the power of this court to give you a prison sentence.
"In the circumstances, the only proper sentence I can pass is a 12-month conditional discharge. It doesn't meet the gravity of your
case but I have absolutely no alternative."
Following the case, a police spokesman said: "If you have a Find my iPhone feature on your phone, tablet or laptop, make sure it's switched on – it can provide invaluable information that can help find your stolen belongings."
