Shocking CCTV footage has shown the moment a man pretending to be an Italian tourist stole the phone of an office worker.

Florin Petrache, 34, and Gabriel Stanescu, 22, asked unsuspecting staff at businesses and offices in towns across Norfolk for help pretending to be a lost Italian tourist named Mario.

The requests were instead an elaborate ruse where they would use sleight-of-hand style tricks to swipe away victims' phones from underneath their noses.

Florin Petrache and Gabriel Stanescu have been jailed for distraction theftsFlorin Petrache and Gabriel Stanescu have been jailed for distraction thefts (Image: Norfolk Constabulary)

Petrache would often enter businesses and ask for help with queries such as directions which would often involve victims using a phone.

During the conversation, he would then use a paper document to hide a phone which he would then steal.

READ MORE: ‘Sleight of hand’ conmen duped good samaritans to steal mobile phones worth £30k

The CCTV from a shop in Dereham shows Petrache deploying this trick, with her mobile phone momentarily obscured from view, he then swipes it away.

This ploy was used across the region in locations including King’s Lynn, Thetford, Fakenham, Dereham, Watton, Attleborough, Dersingham, Holt and Cromer.

The scam plagued Norfolk with £30,000 worth of phones stolen.

They were eventually caught on the A149 near Cromer, arrested and sentenced last week.

Petrache, of no fixed address, pleaded guilty to eight thefts and asked for a further 31 between October 2020 and March 2024 to be taken into consideration.

Stanescu, of Ranelagh Road in Ipswich, admitted six thefts with another 27 taken into account.

Judge Anthony Bate jailed Petrache for two years and Stanescu for 21 months saying they had “repeatedly preyed on the goodwill of strangers who were only trying to help you”.

The pair, not from Italy but both Romanian nationals, were told: “In all likelihood you will face deportation back to Romania upon your release."