Dozens of police officers carried out a series of dawn raids yesterday against modern-day Fagins who have trafficked more than 1,000 Romanian children into Britain and taught them how to shoplift and pick pockets.

Eleven children, some under the age of 10, were carried by police from terraced houses in Slough, Berkshire, and handed into the care of social services.

The children, who will now be interviewed by specialist officers, are often bought for as little as a few hundred pounds from their Romanian parents and sent to towns in England to steal from tourists, businessmen and commuters.

The crimes have led to a surge in street offences in almost every big city in Britain, including London, Manchester and Cardiff.

One police operation has identified 200 children from Romania who are thieving on the streets of London and one busy police station now has a crèche to deal with the children brought in.

Senior officers working closely with their Romanian counterparts estimate that the child thieves are making about £100 million a year for their masters.

Most of the money is either wired back to Romania or sent in suitcases. The leaders are said to have built several large mansions in a relatively poor Romanian village.

Some of the children are as young as 18 months and will be used by women begging for money.

The raids yesterday, carried out by officers from the Metropolitan Police, Thames Valley Police and British Transport Police with officials from Slough Borough Council, were on cheap rented properties, where dozens of people live crammed together and are used as a base by the gangs. The raids came after an intelligence operation lasting more than a year. Twenty-five people were arrested.

A police spokesman said that the operation was “part of ongoing work in London to disrupt the organised criminals involved in child-trafficking, theft of personal property, pickpocketing and cashpoint theft crime”.

Statistics show that in January and February 2006 officers in Westminster recorded 48 offences of pickpocketing and theft involving Romanians. In the first two months of last year the number of offences had risen to 395.

The children use a variety of techniques to steal credit cards, cash and mobile telephones.

“Hugger muggers” specialise in singing and dancing to distract, before hugging their target and removing items from pockets. “Table surfers” describes the tactic of going into restaurants and removing belongings from tables and chairs. Babies are also used to distract attention from would-be victims.

In the two months since Romania joined the European Union a year ago pickpocketing offences rose by about 750 per cent compared with the year before in Westminster alone.

Officers, who emphasise that other nationalities also pickpocket, including Algerians and Britons, have built up their intelligence after collaborating with the Serious Organised Crime Agency, local authorities and officers involved in Operation Maxim, which is focused on human-trafficking.

They have also been working with their counterparts in Romania. Four Romanian police officers are now working in Britain with their counterparts to address the problem.

Commander Steve Allen, of City of Westminster police, said: “We know from intelligence we have received that a lot of the children are trafficked, used as a commodity and taught to carry out crimes and taught to pickpocket.

“The information we have is that families in Romania are paid between €200 and €400 to give up their children. This is happening all over the country in almost every major town as well as Spain, France and even as far afield as Canada.

“Someone said to me that the fastest growing industry in Romania is the money-transfer business.”

In Lancashire, police have come across several scams involving Romanians, including a dance troupe that entertained several store owners while their accomplices were stripping the shelves.

Sergeant Ian Hall, of Preston police, said: “They would go into the shops in a group and start dancing while others stole things from the shelves. Sometimes one would pretend to have a heart attack to cause a distraction.”

If the children are arrested they claim to be under 10, the criminal age of responsibility, even though officers suspect they are much older. Often, the adult that comes to collect them as a relative is merely a member of the gang that they live with.

A Home Office working group is now looking at the issue of what should happen to the children. They are trying to find out how the children can be sent back to Romania within the constraints of the European treaty.

Mr Allen said: “We have seen kids taken away by someone claiming to be their mother or father with seemingly the correct paperwork and have then seen them back on the streets working the next day but using different names and ages.”

He added: “Although the individual offences are often fairly low level it is very clear this is highly organised crime on a large scale that ruthlessly exploits children and other vulnerable people so that vast sums of money can be made for those at the top of the criminal network.”

Artful dodges

Eastern European gangs use several scams:

— Hugger muggers After a night out, people tend to leave clubs and pubs the worse for wear. Gangs of men and women will approach their targets singing and dancing and then hug their victim while an accomplice picks their pockets

— Distraction thefts While people are about to take money from a cash machine someone bumps into them, causing them to turn around. Then someone else takes the money from the machine. Babies are often used by gangs and beggars to distract their marks. As victims look at the baby someone dips into their handbags

— Table surfing The gangs enter a restaurant or cafe and look for mobile telephones or wallets that have been placed on tables. They sometimes cause a distraction and take the items or walk past the table and steal

— Robbers’ reel Earlier this year a Romanian dance troupe entertained several stores in Lancashire while their accomplices stripped the shelves. As the amused shopkeepers watched the gang dancing around, their goods were being stolen

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