'Fagin' bringing in foreign thieves

August 25, 2008

A MODERN-day Fagin is bringing teams of professional pickpockets into Australia on stealing holidays, reaping thousands of dollars from their crimes and then sending them back home to avoid police detection.

The organised crime figure uses tourist visas to bring the thieves "on tour" from South American countries including Colombia and Brazil to prey on unsuspecting shoppers...

But they are not the only ones being used for stealing holidays in Australia. International tourists are being targeted at airports by touts who lure them in with promises of cheap accommodation before taking their passports and refusing to return them unless the hapless tourists co-operate.