Woman admits to withdrawing €60,000 using parent's stolen bank card

The 33-year-old woman is unemployed and understood to have a serious drug problem

A woman from Sliema has admitted to using her parents’ bank card to withdraw €60,000 without their consent.

Joelle Galea, 33, was charged with theft aggravated by means, time and value, fraudulently using a PIN number belonging to someone else and stealing bank cards from her parents between December 2017 and February 2018. 

Galea, who is unemployed and understood to have a serious drug problem, was also charged with being in possession of cannabis and ecstasy which the police found following her arrest.

Police Inspectors Lara Butters and Mark Anthony Mercieca arraigned the woman before magistrate Gabriella Vella this morning, also exhibiting to the court the drug paraphernalia recovered from the accused.

They explained that the accused had withdrawn some €60,000 from her parents’ APS bank account over a three-month period, using a stolen bank card.

Defence counsel Stephen Tonna Lowell informed the court that the accused would be pleading guilty and asked for a pre-sentencing report to be drawn up by probation officers before the woman’s sentence was handed down. The court acceded to this request.

The defence then requested bail, which the prosecution did not object to, as long as conditions were sufficiently stiff.

Magistrate Vella granted bail Galea on condition that she sign a bail book 3 times a week and against a deposit of €500 and a personal guarantee of €5000. The court solemnly explained the implications of breaching bail conditions to the accused. A probation officer was also appointed. The case was allocated a sitting in May for sentencing.