Andrew Carey
TWO Bulgarian women, with Europol profiles as sneak thieves, have been jailed for targeting an elderly shopper and stealing her wallet and cash from her bag as she tended to children while she shopped.
27-year-old self proclaimed DJ, Elena Kostandinova and her 22-year-old friend Penka Georgieva had only recently arrived in Bulgaria, Limerick District Court was told when they were “stuck for money” and targeted an woman in her 60s shopping in Penney’s.
Last Monday, security staff became alerted to two women acting suspiciously on the shop floor and saw that they were “operating in close proximity to shoppers”, Sgt Donal Cronin told the court.
The two were seen moving around the store and when gardai were called, CCTV footage captured one sneaking the purse from the victim’s handbag while the other provided “cover”.
The lady’s wallet contained several items including bank cards and €200 in cash. The pair were immediately arrested but only €160 was recovered.
Pleading guilty to the offence through the use of a Bulgarian interpreter, the court was told that the two women had only arrived in Ireland in “the last few days”, but no details of return flights had been given to the court.
Sarah Ryan, assigned legal aid solicitor said that it was her instruction that the two women had come to Ireland to look for work.
Elena Kostandinova said she was a DJ in Bulgaria but had infrequent earnings and Ms Georgieva was on social benefit payments of €30 per month.
However the court was told that Ms Kostandinova had previous convictions in Dublin in 2012 and 2013 for theft and another in the UK city of Bolton also in 2013. The convictions were for similar thefts and had received monetary fines in Ireland and three month suspended sentence in the UK.
Without any conviction in this jurisdiction, Judge Eugene O’Kelly was told that Ms Georgieva had a profile with Europol and previous convictions in the European Union.
Sgt Cronin outlined that Ms Georgieva had convictions in Sweden and Denmark and had been excluded from both countries. She also had convictions in Norway and was described as a “person of interest in Germany where she had come to adverse police attention”.
“This is a highly skilled and organised enterprise by these individuals who were highly proficient sneak thieves actively committing crime throughout Europe”, he said.
Judge O’Kelly asked what connection the pair had to Ireland and when Ms Ryan outlined that they had none, the district court judge questioned as to “why are they coming her so, one has previous convictions in Dublin and the UK and the other has a Europol profile that has her excluded from half of Scandinavia”, he said.
Ms Ryan conceded that it was a “low and mean type of offence” and that they were “stuck for money on the day” and thus resorted to this.
In jailing the two women, Judge O’Kelly said that despite the “quick apprehension of garda Sinead Galvin and her colleague, I’m told that there is still outstanding property. This is an organised enterprise where the their sole purpose is to commit offences. They knew exactly what they were doing”
Penka Georgieva was jailed for four months and Elena Kostandinova was jailed for five months.
