Public bus commuters are fast becoming the victims of pickpockets once again after four reports of this sort were reported by Maltese and foreigners in as short a period as two hours at the Valletta and St Julian’s police stations on Friday, this newspaper is informed.

Two victims of pickpockets (one of which is Maltese but is here on holiday) who spoke to this media house said that on Friday, both her and her daughter decided to take a bus ride from St Andrew’s to Valletta to serve as a sightseeing tour.

On arriving in Valletta, she realised that her purse had gone missing. On reporting their case to the Valletta police, another two couples walked in claiming they also had been victims of what they suspected were pickpockets while travelling by bus from Swieqi to Valletta.

“While at the Valletta station, the phone rang and it was the St Julian’s police who also said that a similar report had just been lodged by a foreign couple who claimed they had their personal belongings nicked from their bags while on the bus,” the victim told this media house.

One of the victims said that on verifying whether the criminals had made use of her credit card, she realized that the maximum amount that can be withdrawn in 24 hours had been stolen from her bank account, that of €500.

It is unclear whether the victim may have had her PIN number in her purse.

It is not the first time that Romanians and Bulgarians were spotted roaming in Valletta in the past and engaging in such a crime. Police have arrested and charged Romanian and Bulgarian nationals with pickpocketing on various occasions.

In Friday’s case, from information this newspaper received, none of the victims were able to identify who the perpetrators were since none had realised at the time that their belongings were being stolen.

In 2011, police believed Eastern Europeans were among the main contributors to a surge in pickpocketing statistics registered in Malta in 2010.

A total of 502 pickpocketing crimes were reported in 2010, up from 450 the previous year. And a good number of them were believed to be caused by gangs of Romanians and Bulgarians trawling shopping and entertainment hotspots.

As a result, police had deployed extra patrols in Valletta’s streets in a bid to curb the increase in offences.

The most last spike in pickpocketing on buses occurred last August, when four Romanian nationals were remanded in custody after pleading guilty to charges of pickpocketing from on board Arriva buses and bus stops.

Prosecuting inspector Michael Mallia had said the gang was one of many gangs responsible for over 250 pickpocketing thefts reported to the police since May 2013. The police invested resources and time in trying to apprehend the culprits however, the slyness of the thieves made it hard for police to apprehend them. The four Romanians were charged with 22 thefts which took place between 8 July and the first Monday of August.