Now this 'professional' pickpocket who targeted the elderly is spared jail as prisons are too

By CLAIRE FARAGHER and DOMINIC CONNOLLY Published: 22:43, 16 August 2026 | Updated: 22:58, 16 August 2026 A pickpocket who targeted elderly people on buses has been spared jail under the same legal changes that may see PC Andrew Harper's killers let out early. In one offence, Stefka Gishanova took £1,900 cash a pensioner had withdrawn to spend on family Christmas presents. The 55-year-old Bulgarian, who was arrested at Stansted Airport as she was about to board a Ryanair flight to Cologne, also stole mobile phones and a pensioner's bus pass. Sentencing her at Harrow Crown Court, Judge John Lodge told her: 'You are a professional thief. Your occupation is as a pickpocket. You target the vulnerable.' However, he said that, because of changes that came into force on March 22 with Labour's Sentencing Act, her 12-month custodial sentence would be suspended, as all prison terms of such length now are. He added that, under the current Sentencing Guidelines, he had also been obliged to reduce a potential two-year sentence for six thefts and attempted thefts to 12 months. Six months was taken off because of her ill-health and no previous convictions, and another six for her guilty plea. Gishanova has been in custody since her arrest on July 22. When she shuffled into the dock with a walking stick, the judge told her that if she had pleaded not guilty and forced a trial and cross-examination of her elderly victims, her sentence, if she had been found guilty, 'would have been considerably higher'. Stefka Gishanova, 55, who targeted elderly people on buses has been spared jail under the same legal changes that may see PC Andrew Harper's killers let out early Gishanova, from Edmonton in north London, who had the court proceedings translated for her by an interpreter, was told by the judge that she was 'deliberately targeting vulnerable people'. The victim who lost £1,900 in cash – which had just been withdrawn from her pension savings account and was taken in November 2023 – said in an impact statement that the theft had 'changed my life'. The pensioner said that she now goes out only once a week and will never get on a busy bus. Prosecuting barrister Dominic Bell told the court that in August 2025, Gishanova had also stolen a £1,400 mobile phone from a disabled Muslim pensioner on a bus going to evening prayers. 'The impact on the elderly of losing these sums of money or of losing a mobile phone is huge,' the judge said. He told Gishanova: 'I understand you plan to return to Bulgaria. I very much hope you do. If you do not, and appear before this court in the next two years, you will go straight into custody for 12 months.' All the offences for which she was convicted took place on London buses. In December 2022 she stole £50 in cash and a Freedom Pass, which enables those 60 and over to travel for no charge on public transport. She walked free from court under the new Sentencing Act rules that are set to allow two men convicted of the manslaughter of PC Andrew Harper to be released after serving only half their 13-year sentences. The law changes are meant to free up space in densely crowded jails, but last night it was reported Britain's newest prison, HMP Millsike, near York, still has hundreds of empty cells 18 months after it opened. The £400million Category C resettlement jail has a near 1,500 capacity but is currently restricted to around 1,100 due to a lack of prison officers, which is common across the system. A source said: 'Millsike has been struggling to staff the prison. They have reached the point where they have got all the staff they can recruit to safely operate at a reduced number of spaces but they are struggling to get above that.'