A watch thief who stole a Rolex in a street mugging was arrested by police who used retrospective facial recognition technology to identify the felon.
Andreas Lee, 41, attacked his victim in the early hours of January 17 on Bute Street in Cardiff.
Lee punched his victim before stealing his Rolex watch and a Smart Wallet before running away from the scene.
His victim recovered from the blow and started to track down Lee, when he spotted a patrol car and flagged down the officers.
According to South Wales Police: ‘Officers sourced a CCTV still of the suspect and Retrospective Facial Recognition Technology identified Andreas Lee.
‘Retrospective Facial Recognition Technology compares still images of faces of unknown subjects against a reference image database in order to identify them.’
A second suspect, Azake Abakar, 32, from Cathays was also jailed for twelve weeks for assault and theft in connection with the incident.
Detective Constable Stephen Jenkins said: ‘South Wales Police is committed to tackling violent crime and reducing the numbers of victims and perpetrators, but we need people to really think about their actions and lifestyle and what may be causing them to become violent.’
Earlier this week, a thief dubbed the ‘Rolex Ripper’ avoided jail because of prison overcrowding.
Walid Raoul, 30, attempted to yank Mark Beard’s Patek Phillipe timepiece from his wrist as he walked back to London’s Connaught Hotel with his wife Annli.
Justifying his decision to suspend the sentence, the judge said: ‘Custody would have a significant impact on your wife and young daughter.
‘It is also appropriate to take into account the current overcrowding of this country’s prisons.
‘Consider yourself extremely fortunate to be walking out of court today.’
In July, thieves tried to grab a £185,000 Richard Mille watch from a woman in her 40s outside St Pancras International Station.
The gang pushed the woman to the ground before wrestling the timepiece from her wrist.
Meanwhile, the Watch Register claims the number of timepiece thefts worldwide has tripled in a year.
Over the past 12 months, watches with a combined value of £1.5bn have been stolen.