A 16-YEAR-OLD Phuket woman who coached her new 'Romeo' in how to become a motorcycle bag snatch thief told him: ''If you don't do this, I will find a new boyfriend.''

So the pair staged seven robberies, with the young woman hoping for a haul of about 10,000 baht a time, which is what her former boyfriend told her he had been achieving by the same kind of theft.

She rode pillion, grabbing bags from the front basket as her new boyfriend, aged 18, revved the motorcycle alongside a potential victim.

However, the first bag-snatch at Patak Road in Kata-Karon one night produced a haul of just 30 baht, the young woman told police at Chalong yesterday.

The second snatch, at Soi Thanu in Chalong, was a bit more productive: 900 baht, plus a mobile telephone. Outside Rawai temple, they snatched a third bag containing 800 baht and a telephone. Outside the Bank of Ayudhya in Chalong, the haul was 500 baht; Soi Saiyun in Rawai, 100 baht plus a telephone; Outside Vichit Resort, a credit card and documents, but no cash; Snatch No. 7 in Rawai at Suanmaprow Market brought a bag with only an ATM card and papers inside.

So much for the 10,000 baht a snatch that the former boyfriend had forecast.

On Monday, the pair rode up to a police checkpoint at Chalong where an astute officer pulled them over and held them because they and their motorcycle corresponded to the descriptions supplied by their victims.

The pair were quick to admit their crimes. The young woman, who cannot be named because she is under 18 and a minor, related the story of how she had coerced her new boyfriend into pulling the bag thefts.

What she may not have told him was that her previous boyfriend, the one who boasted of a 10,000 baht average haul from bag-snatching, was already in jail serving time for the same crime.

The two young men will probably be able to compare notes sometime soon.