KEY POINTS:
Two Romanian tourists who stole the pin numbers of elderly women throughout the North Island have been jailed.
Alexandru Marius Mihaita 31, and Daniela Vasile 27, preyed on women, some as old as 83, on a five-week crime spree.
New Plymouth District Court was told that just two days after they landed in New Zealand in September, until they were caught five weeks later, the pair would distract pensioners before stealing their purses.
Their modus operandi involved one of them spying on their victims to get pin numbers before one of them would ask for directions as the other snatched inside the victim's handbag.
In court today the pair were jailed for two years on 18 charges of theft, 27 charges of using a document and four charges of attempting to use a document.
"Your operation was a confidence trick not usually associated with New Zealand offenders," Judge Allan Roberts said.
He said the pair's claim that they were enticed into the offending by an unknown man in Auckland, as well as claims they were forced to send money home to a gypsy, were "fanciful."
The court was told the dozens of victims would never get a cent out of the pair as they had sent all of the stolen $21,960 home.
Judge Roberts told the pair that " there is a need to protect elderly women in this country from parasites such as you."
The officer in charge of the case, Detective Mark Scott, said it was some of the most low-life offending he had ever encountered.
Defence counsel, Julian Hannam and Paul Keegan, said their clients were remorseful for what they had done.
Mihaita, who it was revealed had a wife and two children in Spain, and Vasile will be deported immediately after their release from prison.
- NZPA
