Jail for Fagin who organised teams of female pickpockets

A modern-day Fagin who recruited an army of women pickpockets to rob Tube passengers is facing jail today.

Greek national Apostolos Nastos, 45, made an estimated £100,000 a year running a group of professional thieves who operated in pairs or large groups across London and England.

Police said Nastos controlled the activities of his gang by retaining their documents, including passports, ID cards and Home Office documentation.

Funded by the proceeds of the women's crimes, Nastos would pay for them to travel across the country to steal, with detectives uncovering evidence linking the women to thefts in crowded places and shopping centres in Chesterfield, Mansfield, Southend and in Cumbria. The proceeds from the thieving are believed to have been smuggled to Bulgaria. Nastos, of Wood Green, was convicted of directing the activities of a number of pickpockets over two years. He is due to be sentenced today at Southwark crown court for conspiracy to steal following a British Transport Police investigation spanning 18 months.

Detectives say theft offences on the Underground fell by 21 per cent the month after Nastos's arrest in April last year.