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Jail for Fagin who organised teams of female pickpockets
Justin Davenport8 May 2009
A modern-day Fagin who recruited an army of women pickpockets to rob Tube passengers is facing jail today.
Greek national Apostolos Nastos, 45, made an estimated £100,000 a year running a group of professional thieves who operated in pairs or large groups across London and England.
Police said Nastos controlled the activities of his gang by retaining their documents, including passports, ID cards and Home Office documentation.
Funded by the proceeds of the women's crimes, Nastos would pay for them to travel across the country to steal, with detectives uncovering evidence linking the women to thefts in crowded places and shopping centres in Chesterfield, Mansfield, Southend and in Cumbria. The proceeds from the thieving are believed to have been smuggled to Bulgaria. Nastos, of Wood Green, was convicted of directing the activities of a number of pickpockets over two years. He is due to be sentenced today at Southwark crown court for conspiracy to steal following a British Transport Police investigation spanning 18 months.
Detectives say theft offences on the Underground fell by 21 per cent the month after Nastos's arrest in April last year.
Reader views (16)
Dear Kelly, I read your comment with interest and would like to ask you are you sure that this person is Greek and not Cypriot??? I would like to say that Cypriots in the UK and all over the world call themselves Greeks and not Cypriots. They do not have Greek ID, not a Greek passport so how can u say that this person is Greek without knowing more details about him??? I ask you to find out more before you say Greek.
- George Ioannidis, Greece, 09/05/2009 06:53
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As soon as his jail sentence is up...send him packing back to Greece.
- Annie, Devon, 08/05/2009 23:12
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But how about his human rights? Mrs, London, UK - surely we could not send him back to suffer - it is better that we do and pay for it after all that is New Labour free for the crimals paid by the tax payers
- London Eye, uk, 08/05/2009 17:33
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I refer to Mrs, from London. Greek jails may not be so comfy as the ones in the UK but I assure you are very easy-going! Greece has had a number of jailbird breaks recently, as easy as popping in and out of Sainsburys! The most recent this year, of a prisoner who twice escaped and his 2 accomplices with a helicopter! Easy as pie. Greece's police and security is a national joke!
- Kelly, South East Europe, 08/05/2009 17:28
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Clearly one of NuLabours success stories, they have made the UK a honey pot for overseas criminals, easy pickings, little chance of being caught, free legal representation, soft penalties in the unlikely event you are punished and deportation blocked by an army of "Human Rights" lawyers. And before you know it the predators are back on the street.
- Frank, Dorchester Dorset, 08/05/2009 16:53
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Another non-British imported criminal - you've just got to love the diversity.
- Ranter, Maidstone, UK, 08/05/2009 16:30
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He was obviously more deserving to enter this country than a bunch of free-loading Gurhkas!
- Philip, London, England, 08/05/2009 15:44
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I do hope deportation comes after the punishment.
- Ab, London, 08/05/2009 14:53
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Ahh, another case of the 'benefits of immigration'.
- Sandy, London, 08/05/2009 14:48
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Reminds me of G. Brown and his bunch of women who have stolen far more than this chap but can get away with it
- Mike, London England, 08/05/2009 14:30
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Good work by the police and strengtens the case fir everyone to have ID cards. A lot of our crime is perpetrated by these eastern Europeans. T H Leeds
- Thomas Hayes, Leeds UK, 08/05/2009 14:16
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An organised, sinister 'international' gang of ID and passport thieves?
It sounds a bit more serious than casual 'pickpocketing'.
As if we didn't have enough rampant criminals in Brown's fledgling Banana Republic already, after the dozy Blunkett threw the front doors wide open, and Smith then removed them entirely, to 'invite' countless numbers of unidentified wannabe 'pickpockets' in.
Brilliant.
- Dave, Cumbria, 08/05/2009 14:15
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facing jail, lovely language English...he should have been inside looking out through the bars now for years !
- Edouard. B, Toulouse, France, 08/05/2009 14:11
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Ah ... another 'Englishman' taking advantage of his adopted country !
- Kathy Doyle, london, 08/05/2009 13:59
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We should now pick his pockets and send him back whence he came from
- Richard Edmunds, Rayleigh Essex, 08/05/2009 13:14
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I trust he'll be deported to serve his sentance in a Greek jail, where I'm told the inmates are not made as comfortable as they are in the UK!
- Mrs, London UK, 08/05/2009 13:09
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