Armenians jailed for thieving from Phone Boxes
http://www.ukba.homeoffice.gov.uk/si...an-gang-jailed
Three Armenian nationals were today jailed for 3 years each for stealing an estimated £200,000 from telephone boxes.
Grigor and Karine Gevorgyan and Tigran Aglintsyan, ages 48, 46 and 42 respectively, admitted conspiracy to steal at Leicester Crown Court.
In September 2009, British Telecom (BT) started an investigation after end-of-year accounts showed a significant drop in revenue from telephone kiosks that had been attacked in Leicester. Investigators examined the payphones and identified an elaborate system for extracting coins, which led officers to 3 suspects from Leicester.
In May 2010, BT approached Leicestershire Police for assistance with mounting a surveillance operation. As all of the suspects were foreign nationals, a specialist immigration crime team - made up of UK Border Agency and police officers - took on the investigation.
The gang carried out attacks on an estimated 500 telephone boxes across the East Midlands, the South West, Yorkshire, Cheshire, Staffordshire, Warwickshire and Cambridgeshire.
Aglintsyan, from Hinckley Road, was arrested on 22 June 2010 while he was attacking a phone box on Maidenwell Avenue, Hamilton, while Grigor and Karine Gevorgyan were arrested at their home in Empire Road on the same day. All 3 were charged and remanded in custody on 23 June 2010.
The court heard how a very serious criminal enterprise was carried out by a sophisticated gang. The judge made a recommendation that all 3 Armenian nationals be deported at the end of their sentences.
Kam Hyare, foreign national crime team, UK Border Agency said:
'As a result of the excellent technical, forensic and intelligence work carried out by the team at Leicestershire Constabulary, the defendants had no choice but to plead guilty due to the weight of evidence against them.
'This was not the work of amateurs. This was a highly sophisticated operation to steal a very large amount of money from BT. We will now take action to recover the proceeds from their crime and send them back to Armenia once they've served time in prison.
'This case demonstrates we remain committed to tackle criminality involving foreign nationals and will we continue to work together with the police to target such individuals.'
Immigration Minister Damian Green said:
'The UK Border Agency has undertaken a major enforcement campaign to crack down on immigration crime, detaining, prosecuting and removing people and gangs who have been abusing the system through sham marriages, illegal working, people smuggling and document fraud. We are making more use of new technology both at the border and inland to enable officers to focus their efforts on people trying to cheat the system.
'Our proposals to tackle abuse by foreign nationals using student visas to gain work in the UK alongside new plans to toughen up marriage and family routes will, together with the changes already put in place this year, ensure that we bring net migration down to the tens of thousands.'
Aren't we lucky that the ever vigilant UKBA is around to nab these crooks - it must be much easier than preventing them getting into the country in the first place
Originally Posted by Dedworth
... it's just a wonder their defence lawyer couldn't have pleaded "insanity" 
on account of their addled brains 
as a consequence!
