A MAN charged with robbing a woman in her 90s during an alleged handbag snatch in a Wrexham street has been released on bail by magistrates.

A court was told Ian Jonathan Thomas’ mother had died and he was mortified at the thought of missing her funeral.

Co-defendant Katie Marie Adams, who faces the same robbery count, was remanded in custody at North East Wales Magistrates Court.

The two will appear at a plea and trial preparation hearing at Mold Crown Court next month.

They were arrested after a 94-year-old woman walking with a stick, her handbag and a shopping bag, was robbed on Tuesday in Linden Avenue in Hightown, Wrexham.

Thomas, 41, of Y Wern, Caia Park and Adams, who is 28 tomorrow, from Central Avenue in Acton, appeared from custody.

Prosecutor Rhian Jackson asked for both to be remanded in custody because of the seriousness of the allegations.

Both applied for bail.

Emma Simoes, for Thomas, told the Mold court she was making a plea of mercy because her client’s mother had died.

He was mortified at the thought of missing his mother’s funeral, she said.

Magistrates decided that Adams, who the court heard had failed to attend court on shoplifting charges, would be remanded in custody.

But they said in the circumstances of the bereavement Thomas would be bailed subject to a daytime electronic tag between 11am and 6pm.

Thomas was told that if the funeral was to be held during those hours he should return to court to apply for them to be temporarily suspended.

He is not to contact the complainant in the meantime and he must live at his home address.

Magistrates were told locals went to the aid of Jean Hughes after she was said to have been dragged to the ground and had her handbag stolen. t contained cash, personal items and three scratch cards.

She was said to have suffered a cut to her right thumb and hand, a graze to her right knee and she suffered soreness to the left shoulder.