Two men who went on a day-long crime spree targeting victims across a 75 mile area have been jailed at Lincoln Crown Court.
Costel Copalea and his accomplice Marius Stanescu carried out distraction thefts targeting victims in Cambridge, Corby, Collyweston, Stamford, Toft, and Bourne before they finished up at Sleaford.
Andrew Howarth, prosecuting, told the court: “This was a persistent campaign by both defendants to carry out distraction thefts principally in order to steal mobile phones from both adults and children.
“In fact only three mobile phones were stolen but the pair of them were persistent in their targeting.”
Mr Howarth said the first offence carried out by the pair was in Cambridge. They visited a hall of residence at Clare College in the city where a member of the College staff was distracted and his phone was stolen.
The defendants then drove on to Corby where they stole another phone after distracting their victims who were eating a pub lunch.
Copalea and Stanescu continued driving north and next turned up at the Collyweston Slater pub in the village of Collyweston near Stamford.
Mr Howarth said: “They were seen on CCTV attempting to distract the bar staff. Copalea was looking behind the bar as staff moved away.”
Nothing was stolen and a further attempt at a distraction theft was made at the village shop.
The two men then went into Stamford where they targeted the Welland School of Dancing while lessons were being held in the building.
They were let in after persistently buzzing the entry bell and once inside Stanescu went into the girls’ changing rooms where he was caught going through bags.
He was seen with an I-phone but it was grabbed from him by a parent and the two left the building. Other incidents took place at the George Hotel and at a beauty salon in the town.
Mr Howarth said there was a further incident at the Toft Hotel in Toft, where they were asked to leave after being challenged by staff, who found them in the chef’s office in a private area of the premises.
Copalea and Stanescu then drove on to Bourne where they approached two 12-year-old boys outside the Londis shop in Churchill Avenue. They drove off when a customer of the shop intervened and then reported the matter to police.
Just before 8pm the men arrived at the McDonald’s in Sleaford where they sat down amongst a group of 15-year-old girls. Stanescu made sexually suggestive comments and asked for a kiss off one of the girls who rejected his advances.
They then tried to steal mobile phones by distracting the teenagers before an adult customer came over to the group and the men left.
After a further incident at a dental practice in Sleaford the pair drove off, but police tracked down their vehicle using information from ANPR cameras and they were arrested the following day in Northamptonshire.
The court was told that Copalea had past convictions across Europe for dishonesty offences including in Italy, Belgium, Germany and France. Stanescu had previous convictions in Spain and Italy.
Costel Copalea, 20, and Marius Stanescu,21, both of Manford Way, Chigwell, Essex, each admitted a charge of conspiracy to steal as a result of the incidents on July 15. Copalea also asked for two offences of distraction theft committed on July 9 to be taken into consideration.
They were each jailed for 32 months and are likely to face deportation. The Rover 75 car they used during the offences was confiscated.
Judge Simon Hirst told them: “There was significant planning and you acted as a team. One of you attempted to distract often vulnerable people while the other stole or attempted to steal. You chose people you thought to be vulnerable and there was an element of intimidation.”
Dhaneshwar Sharma, in mitigation, said both defendants were relatively young and had come to the UK looking for work.
“In reality there was not a great deal stolen but it was a persistent effort on their part.”
He said they admitted the offences and added: “Both have asked me to apologise to the victims.”
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A 38-year-old man from a North Lincolnshire village charged with murder will face an eight-day trial later this year.
Emergency services were called at 4.23am on Saturday, July 2 to reports that a man was seriously injured on South Parade in central Doncaster.
The 28-year-old victim was taken to hospital but was sadly pronounced dead a short time later.
A post-mortem examination found that he died of injuries to his head, chest and abdomen.
Formal identification of the victim is yet to take place, South Yorkshire Police said earlier this week.
Steven Ling, 38, of Park Drain, Westwoodside in North Lincolnshire, has been charged with murder and was remanded in custody to appear at Doncaster Magistrates Court on Monday, July 4.
Ling later appeared at Sheffield Crown Court on Tuesday, July 5 for a plea and trial preparation hearing.
No pleas were entered during the hearing, but an eight-day trial was set for November 28, 2022. Ling has now been remanded into custody until the next hearing.
The Lincolnite went on a ride-along with a Lincolnshire Police officer from the force’s Roads Policing Unit (RPU), which aims to disrupt criminals’ use of the roads and reduce the number of serious and fatal accidents.
The team will support the county response including local policing, neighbourhood policing and criminal investigation too.
Operations first began in Grantham in January this year and started in Louth earlier this week with a sergeant and nine PCs based in both locations.
The Lincolnite went out on a ride-along with PC Rich Precious from Lincolnshire Police’s Roads Policing Unit. | Photo: Steve Smailes for The Lincolnite
PC Rich Precious has been a police officer for 22 years after joining the force in 2000 and he recently rejoined the Roads Policing Unit, working out of Louth.
PC Precious, who also previously worked as a family liaison officer for road deaths for 16 years, took The Lincolnite out in his police car to the A1 up to Colsteworth and then back to Grantham. He described that particular area as “one of the main arterial routes that goes through Lincolnshire”.
PC Rich Precious driving down the A1 up to Colsterworth. | Photo: Steve Smailes for The Lincolnite
Speaking about the new Roads Policing Unit, he said: “It’s intelligence led policing, it’s targeted policing in areas that have been underrepresented in terms of police presence, on the roads certainly, over a number of years.
“We’re hoping that the development of this unit will help address that balance, and look towards using the ANPR system to prevent criminals’ use of the road, and to identify key areas or routes where there’s a high percentage of people killed or seriously injured on the road, what we commonly refer to as KSI.
PC Precious is helping to keep the roads safer in Lincolnshire. | Photo: Steve Smailes for The Lincolnite
When asked if he thinks the new team will help reduce the number of serious and fatal accidents in the county, he added: “That’s what the the unit designed for. Sadly, in Lincolnshire our road network does seem to incur a number of those KSI accidents year on year, and we need to reduce that.
“I’ve worked additionally in my roles as a family liaison officer on road death for 16 years, so I’ve seen first hand the impact that road death has on families and victims families.
“I know it’s important that we try and reduce those because, it’s very sad to see how a fatal road traffic collision can affect a family and the victims of that family.”
Marc Gee, Inspector for Lincolnshire Police’s Roads Policing Unit. | Photo: Steve Smailes for The Lincolnite
Marc Gee, Inspector for the Roads Policing Unit, told The Lincolnite: “Every day there will be officers on duty from both teams and they’ll cover the whole county or the county’s roads.
“Eventually, we’ll have nine police cars and we’ve got six motorbikes. We’ll be utilising them with as many officers as we can every day basically to make our roads safer and enforce against the criminals who feel like it’s okay to come into the county and use our road for criminal purposes.”
Lincolnshire’s Police and Crime Commissioner Marc Jones at the launch of the force’s Roads Policing Unit. | Photo: Steve Smailes for The Lincolnite
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