Pensioners tricked by burglars' lost cat tale
They turned up at elderly women's homes sobbing with a sad tale of how they had lost their beloved cat and pleading for help to find it.
But once let inside, Cristina Radosavlevic and Bianca Petrunescu, worked as a double team to burgle the homes of their unwitting victims.
The pair targeted victims including one woman aged in her 90s during the three-week crime spree last summer.
One would distract the woman with stories of the cat, while the other, under pretence of looking for the animal, would raid the house of jewellery and cash.
Finally caught by police, the pair appeared at Birmingham Crown Court yesterday and pleaded guilty to five burglary offences.
The offences took place in Birmingham, Warwickshire and Staffordshire between August 21 to September 13.
Radosavlevic, aged 19, of Lincoln Road, West Bromwich, also pleaded guilty to stealing cash, jewellery and a laptop from a 64-year old woman in Pheasey, Walsall, on August 20.
Miss Amy Jackson, defending her, said she had come from Italy, but had been left in the UK alone.
She is originally from Serbia.
Petrunescu, 26, lives in Jardine Road, Aston, Birmingham, but is originally from Romania.
The spate of burglaries started in Coventry on August 21 before moving to Erdington, in Birmingham, on August 30.
The pair moved on to target a resident living in the Nechells area of the city on September 7.
They then targeted a home in the Eastlands area of Stafford on September 11.
Finally the court heard that a home in James Road, in the Hamstead area of Great Barr, was targeted on September 13.
The pair showed no emotion as the charges were read out during the short hearing.
Both were remanded in custody to appear at Birmingham Crown Court for sentencing on February 6.
