Two Romanian pickpockets were each jailed for 20 months today over the theft of 17 mobile phones and an electronic tablet from unsuspecting bus passengers in July last year.

Cezar Mihalache, 53, and Ionel Mihailovici, 59, who both reside at the same Sliema guesthouse, had initially denied a long list of charges brought against them but decided to file a guilty plea at a later stage of proceedings.

Mr Mihailovici was also found guilty of stealing cash between €233 and €2,333, and of relapsing.

A Romanian woman, Ana Iancu, 53 had already been convicted in connection with this spate of thefts and had been given a 13-month jail term suspended for two years.

In the majority of cases the thefts took place from unsuspecting bus passengers in Sliema and St Julian’s, during a three-week period between July 4 and 24. The police had solved the case following a tip-off through which they had traced the defendant’s whereabouts.

Police inspectors Jonathan Ransley and Jason Sultana prosecuted. The court was presided by Magistrate Josette Demicoli.

Crime figures published last week showed that last year cases of pickpocketing spiked with a 32 per cent increase over 2014. In total 2,030 such cases were reported, accounting to more than one in ten in the overall number of reported crimes. The data was published in the annual CrimeMalta review compiled by Prof. Saviour Formosa.