TWO PICKPOCKETS whom gardaí believe are part of a wider criminal gang targeting shoppers in the run-up to Christmas were jailed for seven months yesterday.
Stanka Daneva (21) and Mariyana Petrova (33), who claimed they were staying at a hostel at Durban House, Lower Gardiner Street, Dublin, were caught red-handed on CCTV “picking” women’s purses at two discount stores in Galway city last Tuesday and Wednesday. The women, from Bulgaria, pleaded guilty to both theft charges.
Garda Seán Sheehy told Galway District Court the women came from Dublin by bus each day to target unsuspecting Galway shoppers and were “professional” pickpockets.
They were caught on CCTV at the €2 shop at Eglinton Street, Galway, on December 13th. Petrova kept a female shopper distracted while Daneva expertly stole a €10 purse from her rucksack which contained €200.
The women travelled back to Dublin that evening and returned to Galway the next day where they reversed roles and stole a €50 purse from another customer at another €2 shop at Mainguard Street containing €240.
Garda Sheehy said Daneva admitted when arrested on Sunday that she and her accomplice were part of a wider pickpocketing organisation.
Daneva told gardaí she had two children aged seven and three in Bulgaria, while Petrova said she had three children there. They claimed they had come to Galway looking for work. Petrova said she had only been in Ireland since last Tuesday, and had come straight to Galway that day.
Judge Mary Fahy said the women targeted busy shops. They preyed on innocent people to steal their hard-earned money on the run-up to Christmas.
Judge Fahy initially sentenced the pair to six months in prison for the first theft and imposed a six-month suspended term on them on condition they stay out of Galway city and county for a year, on the second charge.
However, the judge changed her mind and increased the sentences after reading a free legal aid application from Petrova in which she stated her address was “a hostel in Dublin”.
Judge Fahy said the women were not telling the truth and she warned them she would increase the sentence if the women did not give their address to the court. She rose for five minutes to give the women time to give Garda Sheehy a proper address.
When she returned to the bench the women said they had been living in a hostel near the bus station in the city centre in Dublin.
Judge Fahy then vacated the six-month suspended sentence she had imposed earlier and sentenced both women to a further month in prison to run consecutively to the six-month sentence imposed on the first charge.