Leaflet helps to catch Oxford mugger

A man in Oxford has been convicted of a mugging after a leaflet that he dropped at the scene of the crime was found to contain his finger prints.

James Andrews, a 22 year old man from Cambridge, committed the mugging outside the building that houses the Oxford University department of social policy. It was reported that a man had stolen a mobile phone from a 15 year old girl who was waiting for her mother outside of the university.

However, the day was saved by a simple act of flyer printing. Oxford-based criminal Andrews had been carrying a flyer at the time, which he dropped after stealing the mobile phone. Police found this at the scene of the crime and tested it for finger prints. Andrews was already facing jail on a count of robbery and so his finger prints were already in the police database. The prints on the flyer turned out to belong to Andrews, and combining this evidence with CCTV footage of him fleeing the scene, the police were able to convict him.

Whilst it turns out that flyer printing in Oxford is the unlikely hero of this story, this was of course not the reason that the flyers were printed. Many local business use print shops in Oxford to create flyers or posters to promote the goods or services that they offer to customers, and it is likely that the flyer containing Andrews’ finger prints was distributed by one of these local businesses.