ˌArtful ˈDodger, the BrE AmE
a young ↑ pickpocket (=someone who steals things from people’s pockets) in the book Oliver Twist by Charles Dickens. He protests that he is a ‘victim of society’. People sometimes describe someone as an ‘artful dodger’ if they refuse to accept responsibility for their actions:
The minister was regarded as the artful dodger of British politics.