An opportunist thief stole an expensive iPhone from a man’s hand as he slept in a waiting area at a hospital.

Homeless Nathan Palmer spotted the victim asleep on chairs at Medway Maritime Hospital in Gillingham and walked up to him, took the phone from his hand and walked away with it.

A court heard the phone didn’t actually belong to the victim as he had had borrowed it from his girlfriend, who had paid more than £1,100 for the device.

Palmer, 28, of no fixed address, but is from the Medway area, admitted theft from another person when he appeared at Medway Magistrates’ Court via video link from HMP Elmley on August 8.

The court heard he had been arrested on a warrant after he failed to show up at court for this case in April last year.

His arrest came just hours after he had been jailed for 12 months at Maidstone Crown Court on August 7, for burgling his old school and repeatedly stealing from three stores in a six-month crime spree.

His arrest happened while he was still being held in custody over those matters.

However, magistrates heard he had spent so much time on remand awaiting sentence that he would be released from prison within 24 hours as he had already served the equivalent of his year-long sentence.

The bench also heard the reason Palmer had not appeared in the magistrates court in April last year, was because he had been in custody at that point after being given a nine-month sentence in November 2022, but that information had not been fed back to the court at the time of his first hearing.

As a result, it was decided Palmer would not be punished over the failure to surrender matter.

Debbie Jones, prosecuting, told the court that the red iPhone 11, which had been borrowed from the man’s girlfriend, had been swiped on October 15, 2022.

She added: “It was 2am and the defendant was in the waiting area at Medway Hospital, but his presence was unknown and he was removed by security.

“However, prior to that, he had been alone with another man in the area who was asleep, he had fallen asleep, but when he woke up the phone was gone.

“He had fallen asleep with the phone in his hand and it didn’t belong to him, it was his girlfriend’s phone.

“He (Palmer) made admissions in interview and said he was homeless.”

Ms Jones also told the court the woman had been paying £48 a month for the phone and in total, it had cost her £1,152.

The prosecutor added: “She had paid for the phone before it was stolen, but it wasn’t insured, but they are now about £500 second-hand and the phone had photos and videos of precious memories on it.

“He has previous convictions for dishonesty, he has just been jailed, but has served that sentence.”

The court also heard Palmer, who appeared in court via video link from HMP Elmley, had accepted what he had done was wrong and didn’t know why he had taken the phone.

The bench also heard that he was also due for release later the same day and would be on post-sentence supervision by probation for a period of time and that he was hoping to move on in life.

As a result, they decided to make a compensation order so Palmer has to pay the woman full compensation for the total cost of the iPhone.

Despite being ordered to pay £1,152 compensation, because he’s on benefits, he only has to pay what he owes at a rate of £20 a month, so it will be almost five years before he pays the amount off.