This is the moment a brazen conman grinds up against a woman before stealing her £9,000 watch as he becomes the latest member of a pickpocketing gang targeting pub-goers.
Abdelhadi Bahou-Jabour, 24, used a 'bizarre' dancing technique to distract his victims, a method employed by two other men who were jailed last month and who were known to him.
West Midlands Police said Abdelhadi Bahou-Jabour was arrested, charged and pleading guilty to two robberies and an attempted robbery at Birmingham Crown Court.
This is the moment Abdelhadi Bahou-Jabour grinds up against a woman before stealing her £9,000 watch as he becomes the latest member of a pickpocketing gang to land behind bars
Bahou-Jabour strikes up some banter, high-fiving the pair, before launching into his street moves that sees him grind up against the woman before flicking out his leg which is the moment he removed the watch from her wrist without either of the couple realising
The footage shows Bahou-Jabour, who lives in Nottingham, approaching a couple in Colmore Row, Birmingham, at about midnight on July 10.
After high-fiving the pair, the 24-year-old launched into street moves before slipping a £9,000 Rolex watch from a woman's wrist, and failing in a similar attempt to remove a watch from her partner.
The CCTV then shows him jogging off into the grounds of St Phillip's Cathedral where he stumbles across a woman also wearing a Rolex.
Police said Bahou-Jabour then approached another woman singing 'It's Coming Home' before grabbing her and trying to take her watch off.
But the victim realised something was wrong, police said, and resisted, before Bahou-Jabour twisted her arm causing her pain and took a designer watch worth £4,700 from her wrist.
Birmingham city centre officer PC Mat Evans, who conducted CCTV inquiries, spotted Bahou-Jabour during a plain clothes patrol in New Street on July 30, leading to the thief's arrest.
CCTV footage caught the dancing pickpocket engaging with the couple who were both wearing expensive watches (circled: the female victim's watch) on a night out in Birmingham
PC Evans said: 'This technique, where a criminal dances with their victim to distract them, has been referred to as the 'Ronaldinho' after the famous dancing footballer.
'Normally pickpockets try to steal using stealth so you won't even feel it. But this technique uses the opposite approach, using excessive contact to misdirect your attention away from the sensation of having your pockets emptied or, in this case, your watch stolen.
'This is not a skill you pick up overnight - it requires many hours of training and practice to perfect, and is very effective.
'I've seen the Ronaldinho technique used before, but this offender's particular dance moves were the most bizarre I've ever seen. Part Bruce Forsyth, part Artful Dodger.
'I would always advise people to be on their guard when on a night out, as professional pickpockets are just as active then as they are during the day.
'The best protection you can have is to recognise the signs of how pickpockets do what they do, get away from them, and raise the alarm.'
Abdul Boychaala, 30, and Hussen Ehab, 26, are known to Bahou-Jabour and were jailed last month after they were caught on CCTV pretending to dance and hug their victims
Bahou-Jabour will be sentenced on October 6.
As part of the investigation Bahou-Jabour’s mobile phone was examined and pictures of a house party showed associates Abdul Boychaala and Hussen Ehab, from Nottingham, who were both jailed last month for the same ruse.
They had targeted students for their mobile phones with the same leg locking moves, but dogged CCTV work by Nottingham Police meant they were both jailed in August.
Boychaala and Ehab, both of Radford, Nottingham, were jailed for 28 months each at Nottingham Crown Court.
