Eastern European pickpocketing gangs swarm back onto Tube !

Crime spree: Silviya Filipova and Georgi Petkov targeted passengers.

Eastern European pickpocketing gangs swarm back onto Tube.

Justin Davenport,Crime Correspondent

25.05.10

Eastern European gangs of pickpocketers are behind a new wave of thefts on the Tube, it was claimed today.

Figures show the number of thefts on the Underground rose by 11 per cent last year — while nearly all other categories of lawbreaking fell.

Cases of violent crime on the Tube and Docklands Light Railway were down nearly eight per cent in 2009-2010 and there were 23 per cent fewer incidents of public disorder. Overall offending on the Underground system dropped by four per cent — the fourth year in a row that it has decreased.

But the force said there had been a “resurgence” in pickpocketing gangs, mainly from Romania and Bulgaria. It announced an initiative, Operation Silence, to tackle them.

Undercover teams have been deployed and analysts are focusing on the money trail leading to the key players involved in organising the crimes. The number of thefts rose by 660 to 6,794 last year. It emerged this month that a family of pickpockets who stole more than £100,000 from Tube and bus passengers were being sent home to Bulgaria at taxpayers' expense.

Gang leader Nicolay Filipov operated from his rented home in Manor House with Silviya Filipova, 24, Zlatko Nikolov, 18, and Georgi Petkov, 18. They volunteered for deportation.

The number of robberies on the Underground in 2009-2010 increased by one to 137. Total crime on Britain's railways fell by 7.3 per cent, with violent crime down 6.8 per cent and robberies down 21.8 per cent.

http://www.thisislondon.co.uk / Bulgaria Today