Banned 'professional' pickpocket stole £4,000 from elderly lady in Pontefract WHSmith

Married mother-of-three Keranka Nicolova had already been deported for street stealing in 2018, but returned in March this year “to commit crime”, a judge said at Leeds Crown Court.

The 27-year-old Bulgarian was with another unnamed woman as they distracted the 74-year-old, who walked with a trolley, inside the newsagents on Market Place, Pontefract, on March 29. The victim had withdrawn the cash from one bank and was on her way to another to deposit it but stopped at the shop first.

The elderly woman only noticed the cash was gone when she arrived at the second bank.

CCTV images showed Nicolova and the woman stealing the cash. When Nicolova was arrested they found more than £5,000 on her. A fingerprint scan at the police station showed that she was already subject to a deportation order served in March 2018 after being caught pickpocketing.

Nicolova, whose address was given as Una Place, Huddersfield, tried to claim the fingerprint was wrong, prosecutor Benjamin Bell said.

Records showed that she had only arrived back in the UK via Liverpool Airport the day before the Pontefract theft. She had used a passport bearing her maiden name to avoid detection.

She admitted a charge of theft from a person. Mitigating, James Littlehales said: “She accepts it was a joint enterprise and have to concede that this does have an element of being professionally planned.

"Her main mitigation is that she pleaded guilty at an early opportunity."

He said she had three children aged 11,9 and 4 and that jail would have an affect on them. Appearing by video link from HMP New Hall, Nicolova cried throughout the court hearing.

Judge Simon Batiste jailed her for 24 months and said: "You were happy to leave your family behind in Bulgaria in order to come to this country and commit crime.

“You were well aware you were not entitled to come back to this country. Equally I’m satisfied it was to commit crime. She was a vulnerable woman and that is why you targeted her. I expect you will be deported and sent back to Bulgaria when you are released.”

The £4,000 is to be returned to the victim.