Woman charged with stealing phone, cash from 71-year-old man

A woman has been remanded in custody after being charged with stealing from an elderly man who had given her shelter, before she disappeared without a trace.

Inspector Ian Vella arraigned 42-year-old Riccarda Aigbe, an Austrian citizen, under arrest before magistrate Donatella Frendo Dimech on Wednesday. Aigbe was charged with having committed the aggravated theft of a mobile phone and cash from the 72-year-old victim on November 9 last year. She was also charged with leading an idle and vagrant life.

The court was told that the police had been unable to trace the woman for several months. She had been arrested yesterday after being spotted by community police officers and taken into custody.

From the dock, Aigbe told the court that she lived in Floriana, but the inspector explained that the woman had given multiple different addresses to the police and that the address that she had just told the court she resided at, actually belonged to a third party. “I live there with my friend,” insisted the accused, who said she had been living in Malta for several years.

The 72-year-old victim had told the police that he had hosted the woman for a few weeks. One day, she had told him that she wanted to go to the Sedqa offices, and he had offered to take her there himself. Before leaving the man had gone to the toilet and emerged to find the woman gone and his mobile phone missing, together with some cash.

He told the police that he had later found the woman “hiding” in Triq is-Serkin, Marsa and had confronted her. She returned his phone and then ran away after he told her that he would be calling the police.

Inspector Vella also exhibited the defendant’s mobile phone, on which a photo of her passport was found, as evidence. 

In court this morning, Aigbe repeatedly denied stealing anything and entered a plea of not guilty.

Although she insisted that she was living with a friend in Floriana, the defendant was unable to provide the address or the full name of her flatmate, whose name she said was Sunday.

Aigbe told the court that she had been working at a supermarket but had stopped three months ago. “I want to go back to my country next week,” she said.

Defence lawyer Daniel Attard’s request for bail, was objected to by the prosecuting inspector, who pointed out that Aigbe’s lack of a fixed address and her stated wish to leave Malta did not give peace of mind that she would not attempt to abscond.