6-year-olds at 'Fagin' schools

Children as young as six are being taught how to pick pockets at schools in the UK set up by Romanian gangsters.

Once trained, they are sold for up to £20,000.

Children younger than six are even doped with cough syrup and used as props by beggars working for the gangs.



Police are cracking down with Operation Golf. In one raid officers found 20 children, all with criminal records, in a three-bed house in North London.

A six-year-old arrested even tried to pickpocket an immigration officer.

Supt Bernie Gravett said: "There are schools for pickpockets where children as young as six are taught. It's like latter day Fagins from Oliver Twist."