The court was today told that theft incidents of pickpocketing has surged of late, during the case of a Turkish Bulgarian woman arrested yesterday as a main suspect of pickpocketing after being caught red-handed.

The woman, Stoyanka Stancheva, 38, was yesterday caught discarding a wallet in St Julian's. The wallet was later found to be empty.

Inspector Nikolai Sant explained that tourists approached the police to report that their wallets were stolen as they were travelling on a bus. After following three females suspected of the theft who were in the area when it happened, the police spotted Stancheva discard the wallet and was arrested by the police, who then charged her with theft of the wallet.

The court, presided over by magistrate Monica Vella then was told that recently there was a surge in such thefts. Stancheva was declared guilty and was sentenced to a 6 month jail term, suspended for two years.

Before leaving the court, the clearly emotional Stancheya said "I promise it will not happen again."

Lawyer Benjamin Valenzia was legal aid.