Gypsies plead guilty to liquor store robberies
Last Updated: Friday, March 2, 2007 | 9:32 AM MT
CBC News
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A group of Romanian refugees will have to wait another two weeks to find out how much more time they will spend in Calgary's remand centre.
The six, four women and two men who call themselves gypsy refugees, pleaded guilty to theft over $5,000 Thursday.
The group was accused of robbing two liquor stores in January by distracting the shop owners and, in one instance, walking out with $13,000 in goods, including a safe containing cash and jewelry.
They will be sentenced on March 13.
On Thursday, Crown prosecutor Gary Cornfield called them well-organized thieves and asked for sentences between 12 and 18 months.
But defence lawyer Balfour Der says the robberies were anything but well-planned and said they should be released for time served.
In January, one store owner told CBC News the women distracted him by singing and holding up scarves to block his view of the thefts.
"I mean they are a bunch of people who's greatest gimmick is a scarf, who don't even realize there are four different cameras in a store looking at them. That's not very sophisticated at all."
Der is concerned about one of the women who is 8½-months pregnant.
Once the legal proceedings are done and the group is out of jail, they'll face an immigration hearing, said Der.
A youth was also arrested and police are still hunting for two more suspects.
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