The quick-change girl gang who stole £2k from shopper
DRESSED all i n black, and l ooking glamorous with their hair worn down, these women no doubt stuck out as they wandered around Primark.
But within a matter of seconds they were looking completely different after changing into headscarves, cardigans and coats in the store’s lift – giggling during the process.
The bizarre behaviour was caught on CCTV but the reasons behind it only became apparent when it emerged that the trio were a gang of Eastern European pickpockets stalking an elderly victim.
In fact, the thieves made a series of wardrobe changes as they followed their target – a woman they had earlier watched withdraw £2,000 in cash from a nearby bank.
The victim was eventually lured into a conversation by one of the three robbers as her accomplices removed the money from her handbag and made their escape.
Police say the gang probably kept changing their clothes in an effort to avoid alerting the suspicion of security guards or the elderly shopper who might otherwise have noticed she was being followed.
The pictures were released by the Crown Prosecution Service after one of the pickpockets, 23year-old Ivana Ramic, was convicted of the theft and jailed for 11 months. Police revealed that although they had arrested a second woman, Saida Ivocia, 24, f rom Birmingham, she was granted bail and went on the run. The identity of the third thief remains unknown.
The gang’s pickpocketing operation is thought to have been going
‘Sophisticated and professional’
on for almost a decade, since the women were young teenagers.
Sentencing Ramic at Derby Crown Court, Judge John Burgess described the theft of the elderly woman’s money in the Corn Market shopping area of Derby as ‘ sophisticated and professional’.
Prosecuting, Laura Pitman said that the trio had first been caught on camera wearing colourful scarves and long clothing as they watched the woman in the bank. CCTV later picks them up wearing their black outfits before footage shows them giggling in the lift as they swap into other outfits including a long cream trench coat. Mrs Pitman said: ‘They have clearly spotted she has a significant amount of money in her bag. They make significant efforts to obtain the money, and they do. She doesn’t realise until she gets home.’
Nine days later, two women were stopped by security when they returned to the same store. The pair were held in a room until one of them was identified by police as Ramic.
Ramic at first denied theft but admitted the offence during her trial. The court heard she had been previously convicted of almost identical offences, involving elderly people in 2006 and 2008. She had once again attempted theft in 2009.
Ramic worked as a cleaner and was a mother of a three-year-old daughter, the court heard.
Derbyshire Police said officers were working with colleagues on mainland Europe to attempt to trace the two other women.
A spokesman said: ‘Ivocia was granted bail, but she is in breach of that and is believed to have left the UK. We are trying to trace her and the third women.’