Two Romanians who have already faced charges for pickpocketing and falsifying documents in other countries were arrested by the police yesterday after one of them was caught in the act of stealing a wallet from a tourist’s pocket as the latter was boarding a bus.

The police said that after it received several reports of pickpocketing in several areas around Sliema and St Julian’s, particularly on public transport and  busy bus stops, it intensified its investigations and kept watch on several Romanians.

Two people raised the suspicions of the police at around 10am yesterday after they were seen close to tourists and Maltese on a bus stop in Tower Road, Sliema. One seemed to be a spotter while the other was seen stealing the wallet.

The police said one of the men, who is 35, is a relapser for the same crime in Hamburg, Germany, the Netherlands and Switzerland and is under an arrest warrant for similar crimes.

The other, who is 41, is known to the Czech police and has been charged with falsifying documents. They are expected to be arraigned in court tomorrow.

The police said this was the second case of similar arrests in a few days after another two Romanians were arrested on Tuesday when the police found one of them carrying a stolen mobile phone reported missing by a foreigner a few days earlier.

The man, a 47-year-old Romanian, was charged in court on Thursday accused of theft and relapsing. He had already been found guilty of pickpocketing by courts in France, the Netherlands and Romania. He pleaded guilty and was sent to seven months in jail.

The police said they were continuing with their investigations and surveillance to prevent such crimes.

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