Health supplement shoplifter fined, placed on probation and ordered to pay for stolen items

A man has been placed on probation and fined after he admitted to two petty thefts in which health supplements worth a total of €92 were stolen.

French national Jeremie Camilleri, 33, was arraigned on Wednesday afternoon before magistrate Donatella Frendo Dimech by police inspector Eman Hayman.

Camilleri, a Lija resident, was charged with stealing items from a health food shop in Attard on January 2 and targeting the Sliema outlet of the same chain the next day. He was also accused of breaching the conditions of a probation order that had been issued to him upon his conviction for another offence by a court in Gozo in February 2021.

The court was told that Camilleri had been caught red-handed after the second theft.

Lawyer Alfred Abela, representing the accused, informed the court that his client wished to enter a guilty plea, suggesting a conditional discharge or probation order be issued by way of punishment. 

The court was initially reluctant to issue a second probation order to Camilleri who had just admitted to breaching one that he had been issued in Gozo.

“Looks like you’ve been busy here since 2012,” remarked the magistrate, leafing through his records, observing that he had always received non-custodial sentences.

The court asked the inspector to state the value of the stolen items. “€92,” he replied. Turning to the accused, the court admonished him. “Aren’t you ashamed of yourself? You get yourself into all this trouble over just €92?” 

Inspector Hayman informed the court that the accused had told him that he was willing to pay the retail value of the items he had stolen. 

In view of his admission of guilt, the court imposed a €200 fine on Camilleri for the breach of the previous probation order, payable in monthly instalments by the end of March and ordered him to pay the full retail value of the items he had stolen by the end of this month.

Camilleri was also placed under a probation order for 3 years.