A pair of brazen thieves were caught on CCTV stealing £15,000 worth of gold chains from a shop while on a crime spree totalling almost £50,000 across the country.
Married Vadar-Ghimes and Zinca Agafitei, both 46, were arrested after taking ten gold chains worth £15,000 from a jeweller’s in Norfolk.
Enquiries revealed they had swiped jewellery worth another £48,000 from other locations around the Midlands and southern England in just a few weeks – after being allowed into the country despite a ‘similar’ spree of distraction thefts and burglaries, mainly at small, independent businesses in Italy, Malta, Turkey and Germany.
They have now been jailed for 27 months each after admitting three charges of burglary and two of theft. Vadar-Ghimes also admitted a fraud charge.
The couple had committed theft across counties including Warwickshire, Sussex, Wiltshire, Suffolk and Norfolk between May 14 and July 29.
The pair of them were finally arrested after striking at The Gold Shop in Thetford, Norfolk, on July 29.
Before that, on May 14 Agafitei stole an £11,500 Rolex from a jewellery shop after a staff member was distracted retrieving another one the couple had requested to view.
On June 17, a man and a woman entered a jewellery shop in Sussex and requested to view a watch which was on display in the window.
This is the moment Vadar-Ghimes (left) and Zinca Agafitei (right) steal £15,000 of jewellery in plain sight from a shop
The pair had previously swiped jewellery worth another £48,000 from other locations around the Midlands and southern England in just a few weeks
The pair of them were finally arrested after striking at The Gold Shop in Thetford, Norfolk, on July 29
Whilst the staff member was talking to Zinca Agafitei, Vadar-Ghimes leant behind her and stole a gold bracelet from the cabinet worth over £2,000.
In a third incident in Wiltshire on July 20, a man and a woman entered a jewellery shop asking to view bracelets.
The member of staff was assisting Zinca Agafitei with trying bracelets on when the Vadar-Ghimes Agafitei purposefully knocked over a display stand.
When tidying up the display, he stole more than 10 bracelets, worth more than £20k.
On July 25, a woman in her 80s had travelled to Newmarket, Suffolk to do some banking when Zinca Agafitei was seen on CCTV to be watching her.
Vadar-Ghimes Agafitei joins her and enters the bank, watching the victim enter her PIN at a cash machine.
They both followed the victim into a shop where Zinca Agafitei shows the victim an item of clothing.
A short while later, Vadar-Ghimes uses the victim’s card at a cash machine and makes two withdrawals, totalling £700.
Officers obtained CCTV footage from all five offences, which showed the same man and woman to be responsible which were the pair.
Vadar-Ghimes Agafitei and Zinca Agafitei were intercepted on the M6 in Cheshire on October 17 and arrested.
They have since been sentenced to two years and three months in prison after pleading guilty to three counts of theft and two counts of burglary at an earlier hearing.
Vadar-Ghimes Agafitei was jailed for 27 months by Norwich Crown Court for his part in a spate of jewellery heists
Zinca Agafitei was also jailed for 27 months by Norwich Crown Court for her role in the heists with her husband
CCTV footage shows Vadar-Ghimes putting the gold chains underneath his t shirt
He then calmly walks out of the gold shop as if nothing had happened
Sgt Gary Morris said: ‘This was a complex case where the offenders have travelled far and wide, often changing vehicles and locations to try and avoid detection.
‘My thanks go out to the investigating officer, PC Luke Brown, along with the other forces involved.
‘As a result of their efforts, the pair have been caught and will now serve custodial sentences.
‘I am hopeful this case demonstrates that Norfolk is not an easy target, and anyone travelling to this county to commit crime will be dealt with robustly.’
Prosecutor Chris Youell also told Norwich Crown Court: ‘What these two people have done is travel around England targeting jewellers and carried out distraction thefts and burglaries.’
There was a ‘significant degree of planning’ to the offences ‘targeting high-value jewellers’, he added.
Andrew Oliver, representing Vadar-Ghimes, admitted there was an element of ‘professionalism’ about his client’s offences and his main mitigation was his guilty pleas.
The defendant had only been in the country for a few months, he said, and had been unable to find work because he didn’t have a visa.
Ian James, for Zinca, said she was ‘very much aware of the seriousness’ of her crimes and she had ‘learnt her lesson’.
The Times of Malta reported how Vadar-Ghimes and two Romanian accomplices were given two-year suspended jail terms in 2010 after admitting shoplifting 7,000 Euros (£5,800) worth of goods from a string of jewellers on the island. All the items were recovered.
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