TWO women were yesterday remanded in custody for five days after being arrested on suspicion of theft.
The two women, 48-year-old Nely Kbileshvili and 52-year-old Tinatin Kartvelishvili, both from Georgia, were charged with two counts of theft each. Police are looking for a Georgian man also believed to be involved in the case.
Police told the court they were investigating two complaints from two separate kiosk owners who had reported shoplifters. The first kiosk was robbed of a bottle of whisky worth £8.50 and a woman’s watch worth £9.50, with the second kiosk robbed of £10.40 worth of pastries.
“On January 28, a kiosk owner from Aglandja told me that on the day in question two women and a man had come into his shop. He had told me that while the two women were talking to him, he had seen the man take something from one of the shelves and place it in his jacket pocket.
“All three later left his shop and he noticed that a bottle of whisky and women’s watch was missing from one of the shelves. The kiosk has security cameras which recorded the offence taking place and the footage will be handed to the police very soon.”
The two women, who were both wearing tracksuits and were accompanied by two policewomen, followed the proceedings with the help of an interpreter.
“The following day, the owner of a kiosk on Eleftheria square reported to me that he had seen a man and a woman, later identified as Kbileshvili, taking pastries from his fridge just outside the kiosk. The man left without paying for the products and the owner of the kiosk eventually gave chase and caught up with him, grabbing back the pastries.
“The man soon fled on foot. Both Kbileshvili and Kartvelishvili, who was inside the kiosk at the time of the theft, were cornered by the kiosk owner until the police arrived and arrested them. The owner of the Aglandja kiosk arrived later that day and recognised the two women as the ones who had been in kiosk the day before.”
Both women later told officers that they were cleaners and were originally staying in Paphos but were temporarily staying in Nicosia. They would not reveal the identity of the man that was with them.
Judge Lemonia Kaoutzaris ordered that the two women be kept in remand for five days “pending further police investigations, not only into find the missing items, but to also establish some valid identity of the two women and the location of the man still missing.”
