Four women, two of them heavily pregnant, were arraigned on Wednesday over charges of pickpocketing.

In the first arraignment, Genoveva Stoilova, 25, and Iliana Ilieva, 23, both evidently pregnant, were charged over the alleged theft of a cash-filled wallet from a female customer inside a Valletta clothing store.

The alleged theft dated back to June 21, the court heard.

Defence counsel Etienne Calleja contested the validity of the arrest, arguing that in CCTV footage the two suspects could be seen approaching the alleged victim, but at no point were they seen actually committing theft.

The women were already in Corradino prison for similar crimes, awaiting an appeal from a conviction, Inspector Priscilla Caruana Lee explained, adding that they had been identified from CCTV footage relating to another pickpocketing incident in June.

The women pleaded not guilty and did not request bail since they were already in custody.

In a separate arraignment Inspectors Jeffrey Scicluna and Priscilla Caruana Lee charged Mariyana Borisova, 30, a hairstylist and Rusanka Dimitrova Staneva, 43, a cleaner, both from Bulgaria, with the theft of a wallet in April and with having used the credit cards found therein on at least eight occasions.

The two women, also currently behind bars over similar charges, pleaded guilty, with the defence counsel however stating that the plea was yet to be confirmed.

No bail was requested and magistrate Josette Demicoli declared that judgment would be delivered when the two co-accused had confirmed their guilty plea.

Lawyers Shazoo Ghaznavi was defence counsel.