Wow - quick work. Thank you RuthT and Sandy.

But it does look like it's back to the drawing board for me. The newspaper article referred to on Alan Clarke's site is the one in which Samuel Steers 'lives under the same roof with the defendant's mother'. But it looks like she was no longer there in 1841 and, from your census findings Ruth, Samuel Steers definitely had a wife and large family in 1836. So I'm not sure now what the article meant.
There are a whole lot of names in the newspaper article, mainly witnesses for the prosecution, but one interesting name is Richard Barron who was mentioned (but not charged) as part of Thomas Coles' stealing episodes. We assume he was Thomas' brother-in-law as Thomas married Elizabeth Barron in 1831. There seems to have been a lot of to-ing and fro-ing between Wellingborough and Lowick and some of Thomas' accomplices were Lowick residents, although Thomas worked in Wellingborough as a shoemaker and lived at Potatoe Hall (Wellingborough?).
I'm not sure of the best next step, so I'm going to presume on your kindness Ruth and ask if, when you have time, you could check that census for Mary Ann Coles or Harris. If I have the right woman, her maiden name was Linnell and she was born in Finedon around 1790-ish. We think Thomas' father was William Coles, also from Finedon, although Thomas was born in Wellingborough.
Thanks again to both of you - and if you have any other suggestions about where to look, I'd welcome them.
Jojosam