Pick-pocket gang leader jailed for training Bosnian girls to target Asian tourists in Paris

A latter-day “Fagin”, who earned more than €1m a year by training Bosnian girls to pick-pocket Asian tourists in Paris, was jailed for seven years.

A court in Paris was told in March that the pick-pocketing gang run by Fahim Hamidovic, 60, from Bosnia-Herzegovina, was once responsible for 75 per cent of thefts on the Paris Metro. Nineteen other adult gang members were jailed for between one and five years.

Hamidovic, described by his lawyers as a “model grandfather”, trained girls between 11 and 14 to target Asian tourists. They had orders to steal at least €300 a day each. If they failed, they were burned by cigarettes. Investigators calculated that during 2009 the gang stole €1.3m.