Police stopped a professional pickpocket’s plans to ruin the night for revellers at a rock gig in Birmingham last week – leading to a prison sentence.
Dumitru Daniel Gusata was arrested at a British rock band’s show at the Utilita Arena on Friday 24 March. He was subsequently sentenced to four months in prison for going equipped to steal and theft at Birmingham Magistrates Court on Monday 27 March. He was also ordered to pay a victim surcharge of £154.
Police had been gathering intelligence about pickpockets that had targeted gigs and were set to strike again in Birmingham. Acting on the information officers received, and working with the Utilita security team, police deployed uniformed and plain clothes officers to the venue.
Mingling among the audience, our officers quickly spotted Gusata working the crowd. On seeing our officers, he ditched a number of mobile phones on the dancefloor and made off through the crowd. Police gave chase, quickly catching him and recovered five discarded phones.
When Gusata was searched he was found to be wearing a women’s swimsuit worn back to front under his clothes, as well as a denim jacket with additional phone-sized pockets sewn into the lining. His personal mobile phone was also found to have a ‘shopping list’ of different phone types alongside their various values.
The five phones police recovered were straight away returned to their grateful owners who had gathered to report them stolen to venue staff.
In interview, Gusata initially denied any involvement in the phone thefts, but after being charged he changed his mind, pleading guilty in court to going equipped to steal and three counts of theft from the person.