Ontario couple charged in jewelry store theft

Add Sydney to the list of communities targeted by a Ontario couple with a penchant for stealing jewelry.

Grigori Zaharov, 70, Natalia Feldman, 44, both of Thornhill, are charged with theft over $5,000 in connection with the theft of jewelry from Peoples Jewellers in Sydney.

The theft is alleged to have occurred last Oct. 11.

The pair was scheduled to be in a Sydney provincial court Thursday but the court was told the accused are in jail in New Brunswick on similar charges and that the Cape Breton charges will be transferred to Fredericton.

In addition to Nova Scotia and New Brunswick, the pair is also facing similar charges out of Prince Edward Island.

The couple was identified last October after video released from a Saint John jewelry store showed the couple replacing a $10,000 real diamond with a fake one. The incident occurred last Oct. 7.

They are also alleged to have pulled similar switches in Sydney, Charlottetown and as far west as Whistler, B.C.

Last December, a New Brunswick judge sentenced the pair in connection with the Saint John theft. The stolen diamond was recovered. According to media reports of the sentencing, Crown prosecutor Patrick Wilbur described the pair as practised thieves working as a team.

Feldman was given a suspended sentence with 12 months probation. Among the conditions of her probation, she is prohibited from entering any New Brunswick jewelry store.

The Crown recommended a four-month sentence for Zaharov but Judge Andrew LeMesurier rejected the recommendation, based on the offender’s lengthy criminal past, and ordered he serve a one-year prison term.

A status report on the Cape Breton case is expected to be filed July 27.