Bridgerton star ‘relieved’ after prolific thief who targeted her faces 22 months in jail

Zacariah Boulares, 18, was sentenced yesterday (Picture: Met Police)

Bridgerton actress Genevieve Chenneour has said she is ‘relieved’ the prolific thief who was filmed trying to snatch her phone has been jailed for 22 months.

Zacariah Boulares, 18, snuck up behind the 27-year-old actor and grabbed her iPhone in a Joe & the Juice on Kensington High Street, west London, in February.

The 27-year-old bravely defended herself, spinning around to grab the thief’s arm while her boyfriend at the time came to her aid.

Boulares put his middle finger up to members of Isleworth Crown Court and was scolded by the judge before guards took him down yesterday (June 1), the MailOnline reported.

The British teenager was prosecuted for the attempted robbery of Chenneour, who plays Clara Livingston in the hit Netflix period drama, as well as for stealing a handbag at a Pizza Pilgrims in London’s West End on January 30.

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Police officers caught Boulares on his 18th birthday after he stole a backpack from a blind couple who were eating at a Five Guys in Kensington with their son on February 18.

Boulares sat stern-faced in the dock (Picture: Met Police)

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He was sentenced concurrently to five months for the Pizza Pilgrims theft, seven months for the Joe & the Juice theft, four months for the common assault of Chenneour’s boyfriend at the time, Carlo Kureishi, and six months for the Five Guys theft.

Boulares sat stern-faced in the dock, with his arms crossed as he wore a grey prison tracksuit on.

After sentencing, he put his middle finger up, prompting the judge to say that the gesture ‘confirms his lack of remorse’.

The thief’s extensive criminal history – 12 previous convictions relating to 28 offences – prompted Judge Martin Edmunds KC to describe Boulares as engaging in a ‘systematic pattern of stealing from people’.

‘It is clear you are completely willing to use violence when challenged,’ said the judge during sentencing.

Bridgerton star Genevieve Chenneour fought back against the phone thief (Picture: Christopher Polk/ Variety via Getty Images)

The judge added: ‘You seem to be plagued by an attitude if people can afford nice things, then you can take them.

‘I have no doubt he has been targeting areas where he hopes there are rich pickings.’ 

Chenneour took to her Instagram Story after the sentencing, to share a photo she said was Boulares holding a machete.

She wrote alongside the surveillance photo: ‘Relieved this man is now sentenced. And heartbreakingly, I’m far from the only person he’s harmed.’

In a victim impact statement read out to the court, Chenneour also said: ‘I have previously experienced an assault that has left me scared to go out and leave the house.

‘This ended in a severe bout of depression which further prevented me from leaving my home, and the incident today feels like a big set back in my journey to improve my mental health.

She was grabbing lunch when the incident unfolded (Picture: Met Police)

‘I am feeling extremely shaken and cannot stop replaying the incident in my own head and am extremely worried that I might see both of the suspects again and as a result be put in the same danger that I felt I was in during the incident.

‘I felt like I have emotionally shut down and am anxious that this might happen again.

‘I really like going to Joe & the Juice but I am nervous about being there again and have already begun considering leaving London.’ 

Kureishi, in his own victim impact statement, added: ‘This incident has impacted me. After the incident I truly feel worried and scared to carry my belongings. I feel like being in a café is going to make me feel paranoid and unsafe.’

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