A Romanian man managed to get travel documents and fly into the UK despite having been deported three times for stealing.

Gigi Bratasanu, 48, is a prolific pickpocket with a history of ‘preying’ on Londoners for their valuables.

He was originally deported in October 2022 following his conviction for a string of thefts but returned in August last year.

Bratasanu was put on another flight back to Romania in September 2024 but re-entered the country just weeks later to continue his offending.

After serving a prison sentence, he was deported for the third time in January.

Despite having been served three deportation orders in as many years, Bratasanu was able to obtain an electronic travel authorisation (ETA) to get back into the UK.

An ETA lets you travel to the UK for tourism, visiting family or certain other reasons for up to six months.

Inner London Crown Court was told he claims he only came back to get a hair transplant – not to steal again.

Bratasanu pleaded guilty to knowingly entering the UK in breach of a deportation order last week.

Prosecutor Claire Langevad said: ‘This is the first time – perhaps oddly – he’s been prosecuted for the breach.’

Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer has faced mounting pressure over immigration and has announced plans to make every adult in Britain have a digital ID card in a bid to curb it.

His new Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood has also taken a tougher stance on migrants seeking indefinite leave to remain.

In the year ending March 2025, there were 44,125 detected illegal entries, 14% more than in the previous year. Nearly 90% of those arrived on small boats.

The Home Office told Metro it remains fully confident in the integrity of the ETA system.

Ms Langevad told the court: ‘Mr Bratasanu is what has been described as a Romanian pickpocket. He has a history of being deported from the UK.

‘The first [order] was [dated] October 3, 2022. It seems he was deported on February 27, 2024, following an issue with the deportation order.

‘He then returned to the UK in August 2024. He was detained and put back on a flight in September 2024.

‘Back he comes in October 2024, when he is arrested for further offences, and he is deported for the third time following a custodial sentence in January 2025.

‘He has then gone on to make an application under the ETA travel authorisation on April 13, 2025. I understand he travelled in on that, despite being subject to a deportation order.

‘He is then subsequently arrested on June 18 by British Transport Police officers and has remained in custody since.’

Defence lawyer Maddison Fisher told the court Bratasanu has called Spain home since the age of five and has a wife and two children living in Madrid.

‘He tells me he came to the UK to get a hair transplant,’ she said. ‘He got that transplant on April 24 or 25. He says while the price is the same in Madrid, in the UK the quality is better.’

Sentencing him, Judge Freya Newbury told Bratasanu: ‘You are somebody who has a history of what you might call recidivist thieving behaviour.

‘It appears that previously you came over to London to prey on people and take their wallets and phones and so on.

‘You were arrested on June 16 in the UK again, although this time you apparently didn’t come over to thieve – apparently you came over for a hair transplant.

‘I’m not sure about all of that.’

The judge imposed a sentence of two years in prison, telling Bratasanu that he would have served up to 40% of that term were he to stay in the UK.

‘But that is not going to happen in this case, because you will once again be deported,’ she added.

A Home Office spokesperson said: ‘It is our longstanding policy not to comment on individual cases, but when foreign nationals commit serious crimes in our country, we will always do everything in our power to deport them.

‘This government deported almost 5,200 foreign national offenders in its first year in office, a 14% increase on the previous year, and we will continue to do everything we can to remove these vile criminals from our streets.’

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A jeweller to A-list celebrities has said wearing his pieces has become too dangerous in London.

Stephen Webster, whose clients include Kate Moss and Madonna, said wearing gold watches around the UK’s capital is ‘making yourself a target’.

He told the Daily Mail: ‘You have to be smart. You can’t go around London flaunting, “Here’s my gold Rolex”. You’re an idiot.

‘It will attract the wrong kind of attention and can make you a target.’

It comes after Blue Stevens was stabbed to death in central London during a reported attempted watch robbery.

The ‘loving’ father was stabbed outside of the Park Tower hotel and casino in Knightsbridge in July.

A cousin told Metro: ‘He had two lovely kids and was a loving father he lived for his children.

‘He was such a nice person a real good person.’

Asked about the suspected watch robbery they said: ‘Yes he really loved watches of all kinds.’

Between January 2022 and March 2024, around 4,300 watches worth more than £3,000 were stolen in London, according to the Metropolitan Police.

Of these, only 57 were recovered.

In 2023, violent crime in London reached record levels, with even friends of disgraced royals treading carefully around the city.

Caroline Stanbury, friend to Prince Andrew, said she avoids wearing ‘tons of jewellery’ when she visits the UK due to safety fears.

But Mr Webster said he has not heard any reports of his jewellery being stolen as he prefers to make ‘every day’ style jewellery.

He said: ‘‘I don’t make necklaces that cost $10 million. I make jewellery that people wear, literally, every day.

‘I chose not to do that many years ago. I’ve not ever had someone who’s come to me and said, “I’ve been mugged for my Stephen Webster jewellery”. Never. So far, so good.’

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A fire has ripped through an Odeon cinema in south east London with Londoners being warned to stay away.

Firefighters were called to Beckenham High Street this morning with flames seen coming from the Odeon Cinema.

Footage shows smoke billowing into the sky with the fire coming from the roof of the white building.

The London Fire Brigade said: ‘Ten fire engines and around 70 firefighters have been called to a building fire on High Street in Beckenham.

‘The fire is producing a significant amount of smoke and we are advising people in the area to keep their windows and doors closed at this time.

‘The incident is causing major traffic disruption in Beckenham and we are asking people to avoid travelling through the area whilst the incident remains ongoing as road closures are in place.

‘The Brigade received the first of 18 calls at 0759 and Control Officers have mobilised crews from Beckenham, Bromley, Woodside, Forest Hill and surrounding fire stations to the scene. A 32-metre turntable ladder from Forest Hill is also attending.

‘The cause of the fire is unknown at this time.’

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Sir Sadiq Khan has given a brutal assessment of the government’s first 14 months in power – but insisted there’s time to turn it around.

In a football analogy, the London Mayor told a fringe event at Labour’s annual party conference that his party was the equivalent of two-nil down after playing less than 20 minutes of the match.

Ipsos revealed yesterday that Sir Keir Starmer is more unpopular than any other Prime Minister in the history of the company’s approval polls, which date back to Margaret Thatcher.

That means he has a lower rating than Boris Johnson in the aftermath of Partygate, or Liz Truss after her mini-budget.

Asked about the findings, Sir Sadiq told an event organised by The Times that his party ‘can’t pretend things are better than they are’.

He said voters were angry about the lethargic pace of change since the election, which he blamed on the ‘inheritance’ left by the Tories, before calling on the PM to ‘accelerate the pace of delivery’.

The Mayor continued: ‘We’ve also got to be better at telling the story we’re trying to do.

‘If this was a game of football, what I’d say is it’s a 90-minute game, we’ve played almost 20 minutes and we’re two-nil down.

‘We’re two-nil down, and we’ve got to make sure we use the rest of our time in the game, three-and-a-half years, to turn it around. I think it’s possible.’

A Liverpool supporter, Sir Sadiq used the example of the time his team were three-nil down at half time in the 2005 Champions League final, only to defeat Milan on penalties.

It was the latest in a series of assessments from top Labour figures at the conference, pondering how their party has fallen so quickly so fast.

Among the most high-profile has been Mayor of Greater Manchester Andy Burnham, who has been scathing in his criticism of the government as questions swirl around a potential bid from him to replace Sir Keir.

Speaking at a different event taking place simultaneously with the Sadiq Khan Q&A, Burnham said his intention has simply been to suggest new approaches.

He said: ‘The thing that I’m doing is putting forward ideas that in any scenario – whoever is the leader – I think Labour needs to take on board. That is what I’m saying.

‘The only thing I’ve launched is a debate about how do we get a plan together to beat Reform. I’m of course talking about the General Election.’

Like his London counterpart, Burnham also called on the government to ‘tell a story about this country and where do we want this country to go’.

Elsewhere in the Times event, Sir Sadiq declined to follow the PM in describing Reform’s recently announced deportation policy as ‘racist’.

He told the audience: ‘I think it’s a really loaded word, and so I’m very careful when I use it for the obvious reason, I don’t want to devalue this really powerful word’.

However, the Mayor conceded the occasional need to ‘call out people’, pointing out he recently used the word to describe US President Donald Trump.

This afternoon, Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood outlined Labour’s plans to reform the legal immigration system with a shake-up of indefinite leave to remain.

In a speech on the main conference stage, she announced the status would only be granted to people who meet a number of conditions after arriving in the country.

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A gunman disguised as a Deliveroo rider shot an eight-year-old girl and her father in front of their family, a court has heard.

Jazz Reid, 34, allegedly shot the child twice and her 34-year-old father five times on November 24.

The father and daughter, who both survived, were sat with relatives in a car in Ladbroke Grove, West London, when eleven shots rang out.

Reid is accused of carrying out three separate shootings, always in his delivery rider disguise, between October and November last year.

Police found a 9mm self-loading pistol loaded with 17 live rounds hidden beneath a concrete slab outside his home, jurors heard.

Each shooting was planned and executed with ‘precision’, prosecutor Michael Goodwin KC told Old Bailey jurors on Monday.

Reid would drive a hire car to the area, change into his Deliveroo disguise – complete with a takeaway box – and cycle an e-bike to his intended targets, it is claimed.

In the first shooting on October 9, Reid allegedly fired twice, hitting Ameile Buncombe in the thigh at the victim’s home in Notting Hill.

In body-worn video shown to jurors, the victim told police the assailant was carrying a ‘kangaroo’ bag, before correcting it to ‘Deliveroo’, as he was treated at the scene.

On November 11, Reid fired four shots at a north London address linked to the father, who was the subject of the third attack, it is claimed.

No injuries were reported to police on that occasion.

Thirteen days later, Reid allegedly shot the eight-year-old girl and her father in their car on Southern Row in Ladbroke Grove.

Mr Goodwin said: ‘Eleven shots were fired, five hit (the father) in the back, chest, abdomen and pelvis area.

‘Two shots hit his daughter in her buttocks and foot.

‘Both (victims) and other family members were sat in a car used regularly by the family.

‘They had nowhere to escape to when the defendant opened fire on them.’

He continued: ‘Each of these three shootings are alleged to have been targeted shootings. They were planned and executed with precision.’

Reid would drive hire cars from his Uxbridge home and park near an associate’s flat on the Swinbrook Estate in North Kensington, the court heard.

He allegedly used the flat as a ‘cover location’ where he could park his hire car without arousing suspicion.

He would collect the e-bike and Deliveroo outfit from the flat before cycling to the location of the attacks, it was claimed.

Mr Goodwin said: ‘He was disguised as a Deliveroo driver when he carried out the shootings. All three occasions involved a Deliveroo driver riding an e-bike.’

After each shooting, Reid returned his disguise to the Swinbrook Estate flat and drove the hire car home, it is claimed.

Mr Goodwin told jurors: ‘The defendant was arrested on November 26 while driving the hire car, and his home address in Uxbridge was searched.

‘Just outside the home, under a slab of concrete, officers found a 9mm self-loading pistol loaded with 17 live rounds.’

The court heard Reid’s DNA was found on the grip and muzzle of the pistol forensically linked to the third shooting.

A different gun was used in the first two shootings, with the defendant’s partial DNA identified on casings at the second scene, the court heard.

Mr Goodwin said: ‘This defendant had access to two separate firearms used to carry out all three shootings. The three shootings are forensically linked.’

It is alleged the defendant tried to cover his tracks by switching his sim card and changing his mobile phone handset.

But the evidence allegedly showed he phoned his contact on the Swinbrook Estate shortly before each incident.

The defendant’s car journeys to north-west London were tracked by police on CCTV, traffic cameras and through cell site data, jurors were told.

The e-bike and Deliveroo disguise were later recovered from the Swinbrook Estate address.

Reid has denied the attempted murder of the father and wounding the girl with intent. Neither victim can be identified for legal reasons.

He has also pleaded not guilty to wounding Mr Buncombe with intent on October 9 last year and a string of firearms offences relating to the incidents.

The Old Bailey trial continues.

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