'Crime tourists' who stole war medals and piggy bank jailed for three-month crime spree
A gang of Romanian "crime tourists" who plundered homes on winter trips to the West Midlands have been jailed.
Ninel Spiru, 26, Avram Spiru, 38, and Nicolae-Bogdan Baiceanu, 23, smashed their way into more than 30 homes in just under three months either side of Christmas last year.
They ransacked rooms and stole valuables including First World War and Second World War medals and jewellery from widowers and children’s christening bracelets.
At one home in Tividale the gang swiped a child’s piggy bank while in another in Ridgacre Lane, Quinton, they rummaged through a house while the occupier was taking a shower.
Their downfall came when officers stopped a black Ford Focus belonging to Ninel Spiru on Smethwick High Street on February 4. All three were arrested.
A search of a nearby flat revealed a hoard of jewellery estimated to be worth around £200,000 stuffed into bags.
Avram Spiru was linked to a burglary in Coronation Road, Great Barr, on December 4, after his blood was found near a broken window pane.
His DNA was also recovered from a house in Victoria Road, Wednesfield, that the group had targeted on January 26.
On January 27, CCTV caught Baiceanu opening a side gate to a property in Sutton Coldfield.
All three initially denied conspiracy to commit burglary, which also included two break-ins in Stafford, but later admitted their roles in the spree which took place between November 15 and February 3.
Baiceanu, of Windmill Lane, Smethwick, was jailed for seven years and two months.
Avram Spiru, of no fixed address, was locked up for seven years and six months while Ninel Spiru was sentenced to four years behind bars.
Detective Sergeant Nigel Box, the investigating officer, said: "We are looking at three truly heartless thieves. They had total disregard for the distress and upset they were causing victims.
"They smashed their way into homes, trashed children’s bedrooms, and swiped sentimental items, including World War One medals, from pensioners living alone.
"People had put their lives on the line for those medals, they are treasured possessions, yet these three were happy to steal them to make a few pounds.
"Some victims lost jewellery and electricals valued at many thousands of pounds but they also left some, including children, psychologically scarred, from the trauma of suffering a break-in.
"Their flight history suggests they are seasonal thieves, flying into the UK for the winter and returning to Romania to enjoy the summer with their ill-gotten gains. They were essentially crime tourists."
