Three "hugger muggers" who robbed a man in Canterbury are all failed asylum seekers, a judge has been told.

The thugs pounced on an unsuspecting university student on his way home in St Peter’s Street in August last year.

A jury at Canterbury Crown Court heard how the gang used a ploy known as “hugger mugging” – where they pretend to befriend their victim before robbing him.

Anil Nazar. Picture: Kent Police.

Taiwanese student Ting Yo Lin told the jury in a prepared statement how he was near the Black Griffin pub in the early hours of the morning.

He said: “I was alone and a person approached me. He was saying to me that he wants to get to know me and be my friend.

“He was wearing a large blue hoodie with the hood up and claimed to be Turkish.”

Mr Lin said the man appeared to be drunk and kept hugging him, saying he wanted to be friends.

Yassine Hamadoni. Picture: Kent Police.

“After a few minutes of talking and hugging, two others turned up saying they also wanted to be my friend,” he said.

But prosecutor Don Ramble revealed that it was a ploy to rob Mr Lin of his mobile phone.

Now Moroccan Yassine Hamadoni, 20, from the Ashford area; Algerian Adil Nazar, 27, from Victoria Street, Gillingham, and Moroccan Housny Boulaiz, 18, of no fixed address, have all been convicted of robbery.

Mr Lin told how as he walked towards Westgate Kebabs - before the men left to go along North Lane - he noticed his key was missing.

“I went towards Wetherspoons and noticed the three walking back towards me and one of them said I should follow him to look for my key,” he said. “They then pointed to where my key was on the floor and then began hugging me again.

"It is likely at the end of your sentence you will be deported – but that’s not a matter for me" - Judge Heather Norton

“I then noticed that my £600 phone was gone and my watch was undone.”

After the jury’s guilty verdicts to robbery, the prosecutor revealed the three had all claimed asylum but their claims had been rejected by the Home Office.

Hamadoni was on bail at the time of the mugging having previous convictions in October last year for burglary and 10 shoplifting offences going back to 2013.

He was also convicted in the same year of a sex offence in London.

He was sent to a young offender’s institute for two years after Judge Heather Norton told him: “It is likely at the end of your sentence you will be deported – but that’s not a matter for me.”

Judge Heather Norton is presiding over the case

Gravesend kitchen porter Nazir, who is appealing his asylum rejection, has convictions for causing criminal damage and shoplifting in 2014. He was jailed for 20 months.

Boulaiz had been allowed to stay while he was under 18, but the prosecutor added “that status is likely to change”.

He will be sentenced in five weeks after the preparation of reports and was remanded in custody.

He has convictions which begin in 2013, including thefts of bikes, robbery, attempted robbery and making threats to kill after attacking a man in St Peter’s Street in the city.

The case was heard at Canterbury Crown Court

He is also facing sentence for kidnapping a drunken girl walking near the A28 and intending to carry out a sex attack.

Mr Lin had been invited by the Crown Prosecution Service to return from Taiwan to give evidence at the trial but was reluctant and a live video link was made complicated by Britain’s One China policy, which does not recognise Taiwan as a separate state.

Mr Lin’s statement was instead read to the jury, along with his victim impact statement.

“I had been in Canterbury for a year (prior to the attack) and I had never had any problems until then,” he said. “It has left me not wanting to be walking alone around the streets at night.”