{"id":520233,"date":"2026-06-26T22:06:12","date_gmt":"2026-06-26T22:06:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/520233\/"},"modified":"2026-06-26T22:06:12","modified_gmt":"2026-06-26T22:06:12","slug":"impecunious-pickpocket-who-flew-into-dublin-to-target-tourists-is-jailed","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/520233\/","title":{"rendered":"‘Impecunious’ pickpocket who flew into Dublin to target tourists is jailed"},"content":{"rendered":"

A Bulgarian woman who “preyed” on an elderly tourist and a student and was caught pickpocketing within days of flying into Dublin has been jailed for four months.<\/p>\n

Mladena Vasileva (42) pleaded guilty at Dublin District Court on Friday to attempted theft on the Liffey Boardwalk, Dublin 1, and an additional charge of possessing a map for use as an article to assist in thefts. The court heard the offences occurred on Thursday, June 25th.<\/p>\n

When charged by garda\u00ed, the mother of two replied: “I am very sorry for what I did.”<\/p>\n

Garda Donal Cafferky gave evidence of observing Vasileva and her 19-year-old co-defendant, Vanessa Stancheva, whose case will be finalised next week when she has a flight booked to leave the country.<\/p>\n

The court heard that the pair, who have no stated addresses in Ireland, followed a Spanish woman and a student and tried to steal from their shoulder bags before being apprehended.<\/p>\n

Vasileva had three prior convictions in Ireland for theft in 2024. Both had faced strenuous bail objections from garda\u00ed because they lacked ties to the country.<\/p>\n

The woman, who claimed to have been staying in Galway, indicated she wanted to return to Bulgaria.<\/p>\n

In response to defence assertions that the woman was impecunious, Judge Michele Finan remarked that the accused had nevertheless managed to fly into the country to commit offences.<\/p>\n

Judge Finan noted that her actions in targeting the student and the tourist interfered with their enjoyment of the city.<\/p>\n

Finalising Vasileva’s case, Judge Finan imposed a nine-month sentence with the final five months suspended on condition that Vasileva stay out of the Dublin 1 area for two years.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\"Sister<\/p>\n

Ireland<\/p>\n

Sister was a \u2018completely different person\u2019 after alleged attempted rape, trial hears<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

Appeal bail was set at \u20ac500 in her case.<\/p>\n

Judge Finan noted that teenager Stancheva was a friend of Vasileva, but she had no prior convictions and claimed she came to Ireland seeking work. Now, she wished to leave.<\/p>\n

The 19-year-old, who also pleaded guilty to attempted theft and using a phone as an implement during the incidents, was remanded in custody to appear again next week.<\/p>\n

Judge Finan indicated she will impose a six-month sentence but suspend it on the condition that she stays out of Dublin for two years and presents a flight booking out of the country shortly after her next appearance. The young woman agreed to the terms.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A Bulgarian woman who “preyed” on an elderly tourist and a student and was caught pickpocketing within days…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":520234,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[61,60,43],"class_list":["post-520233","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ireland","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/520233","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=520233"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/520233\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/520234"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=520233"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=520233"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=520233"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}