A 55-year-old woman described as a "professional" pickpocket has been spared jail because of legal changes brought in by Labour's Sentencing Act. Stefka Gishanova, originally from Bulgaria, targeted elderly people on buses, on one occasion stealing £1,900 from a pensioner who had withdrawn the cash to buy Christmas presents for family.
Details of the offences
Gishanova, from Edmonton, north London, also took mobile phones and bus passes. She was detained at Stansted Airport while attempting to board a Ryanair flight to Cologne.
During sentencing at Harrow Crown Court, Judge John Lodge told her: "You are a professional thief. Your occupation is as a pickpocket. You target the vulnerable." However, he added that the Sentencing Act means her 12-month custodial sentence would be suspended, as applies to all prison terms of that length.
Sentencing reductions
Judge Lodge also noted that the Sentencing Guidelines required him to cut a potential two-year sentence for six thefts and attempted thefts to just one year. Six months were removed because Gishanova suffers from ill-health and has no previous convictions. Her guilty plea accounted for another six months being taken off.
If she had pleaded not guilty, forcing a trial and questioning of her elderly victims by counsel, her sentence "would have been considerably higher" if found guilty, Judge Lodge said.
Impact on victims and warning
The pensioner who lost £1,900 said in a statement that the crime had changed their life, adding that they now only go out once a week and never board a busy bus.
Judge Lodge said: "The impact on the elderly of losing these sums of money or of losing a mobile phone is huge." He added: "I understand you plan to return to Bulgaria. I very much hope you do. If you do not, and appear before this court in the next two years, you will go straight into custody for 12 months."
