Two female Bulgarian pickpockets had their jail term converted into a suspended sentence on appeal yesterday after repaying all the stolen money.

Elena Nikolova, 33, and Yordanka Vasileva, 25, stole €2,680 from seven people in Malta and Gozo over a span of four days in mid-August. It was a period when pickpocketing reports had reached a peak, with 30 being made at the Valletta police station in one week alone.

The two had “clearly come to Malta to commit crime”, the prosecuting officer had said during their arraignment. They had been jailed for seven months.

In an appeal, defence lawyers Shaheryar Ghaznavi and Robert Galea yesterday told Mr Justice Michael Mallia the women had returned all the money they had stolen. They also pointed out they had pleaded guilty to the charges straightaway and voluntarily admitted to other cases that would otherwise have gone unsolved. The two also had clean police records.

Mr Justice Mallia handed down a seven-month prison sentence suspended for four years.