Stealing a cell phone from one person at the shopping mall at 2:30 p.m. is a different offense than punching someone 5:00 p.m. at that same shopping mall and stealing their cell phone as well. The prosecution can charge those offenses separately.
So holds the Court of Appeal, in an opinion that is both concise (seven pages) and sensible.
It might be one thing if both offenses involved solely the stealing of a phone, or if both offenses involved solely punching someone. (Even then, reasonable minds might disagree about whether that's one offense or two given the two-and-a-half hour gap between the crimes.) But punching someone and stealing their phone is definitely different than simply stealing someone else's phone two and a half hours earlier.
Makes sense to me.
