Two thieves who targeted lone female pensioners and stole their cars have been jailed.

Lee Smith, 18, and Paddy Stevens, 19, mugged a 77-year-old widow as she went to the Tudor Park Hotel in Bearsted.

Along with the car keys, the thugs stole items from her vehicle including a treasured photograph of her late husband, Maidstone Crown Court heard.

They then used Sandra Hubbard's stolen Honda Jazz to carry out another robbery.

Prosecutor Ed Fowler told how the teenagers followed victim Susan Wyatt, aged 68, to her home in Marden and snatched her Audi TT after a struggle.

Courageous Ms Wyatt shouted at them: "This is an 11-year-old car. I'm a pensioner. What do you think you are doing?" before hurling a coffee mug at the masked robber wearing a balaclava.

She then tried to snatch back her car keys but the thug drove away smashing the side of her garage before the two vehicles sped away, leaving her with bruises.

The thieves then made off with a faux tan handbag, £50 cash, a debit card, two tennis rackets and three CDs.

Mr Fowler told how the Audi then struck a police car on Linton Hill at more than 50 mph – trapping PC Lionel Kelly's foot before the thieves fled across a field and dumped a balaclava.

They were later arrested after their DNA was found on a steering wheel and on an energy drink bottle left in the Honda.

Now Smith, of Derby Road, Shepway, Maidstone, and Stevens, of Northumberland Road, Shepway, have both been sent to a Young Offenders' Institute after admitting the two robberies on January 22 and 25 2020.

The judge Recorder Oliver Saxby QC told them: "What you did has had a profound effect on both women. One of your victims is still suffering nightmares as she relived what happened.

"You targeted these women because they were alone and you thought that neither of them could offer you any resistance that you couldn't overcome."

Smith was sent away into detention for 21 months and Stevens for two years.

Mr Fowler had told how Mrs Hubbard had parked at the Tudor Park Hotel in Bearsted intending to use the gym.

After parking her car she was bumped by a youth in a balaclava and a hoodie and had her gym bag containing her kit stolen and shouted that she had no money in the bag.

She chased the thief and later found her bag abandoned on the Ashford Road. As she collected the items she spotted another hoodie – and then realised her keys had been in the bag and her car stolen.

'Smith and Stevens callously targeted older women who they thought would be easy pickings.'

Mr Fowler said that the officer, who was trapped inside his smashed vehicle, which needed £14,000 worth of repairs, was later treated for an injured foot.

Keith Middleton, defending Smith, said the teenager's life "went haywire" after the death of his father a few months earlier.

He now regards what he did as horrific.

He said Smith was the driver in the group who targeted the older women and had been driving the Honda before dumping it and driving the Audi as it crashed.

"He would like to apologise face-to-face to his victims," he added.

Stevens' barrister John Fitzgerald said: "The first incident was a bag snatch – even though I am sure she must have jumped out of her skin."

He said the teenager, had been abandoned by his mother at the M25 services at Clacket Lane and then got into debt after borrowing money.

Stevens also admitted possession of cannabis resin when he was arrested in October 2020.

PC Lily Mackay of West Kent CID said: "Smith and Stevens callously targeted older women who they thought would be easy pickings.

"Their actions will have caused considerable fear and distress, in particular to the second victim who, faced with a man on her property wearing a balaclava, made brave attempts to resist his aggressive actions.

"These cowardly offences will no doubt have a profound and lasting impact on these victims and both men are quite rightly now facing prison sentences."

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