Man gets one-year sentence for robbing convenience store at knifepoint

A man who robbed a convenience store at knifepoint for a bottle of red wine and an energy drink, has received a one-year prison sentence, suspended for three years.

Inspectors Clayton Camilleri and Andrew Agius charged Kiro Trajkovski, a 37-year-old Birkirkara resident from Macedonia, with having robbed a store in the same town that he resided in, on Saturday evening.

Trajkovski was arraigned before magistrate Leonard Caruana on Monday, charged with theft aggravated by violence, confinement of a person and place. He was also charged with exercising a pretended right, carrying a sharp and pointed instrument in public without a police licence, uttering insults and threats and wilfully disturbing the public peace and good order.

Inspector Agius explained that the police had received a report of a robbery at a convenience shop in Birkirkara, by an armed man. Investigators viewed the shop’s CCTV footage, which showed the man to be armed. Officers conducted a search for the aggressor, who they had identified from the footage, and arrested him.

The defendant, who said he was currently unemployed but used to be a cleaner, pleaded guilty to the charges.

Lawyer Martin Fenech represented the defendant as legal aid counsel.

“It is a matter of a simple theft, aggravated by the use of a knife,” explained the lawyer, while the court explained to the defendant that he would be asked to enter a plea again in a few moments, as required by the law.

When the sitting resumed a few minutes later, Trajkovski confirmed his guilty plea.

Making submissions on punishment, Fenech pointed out the early admission of guilt and informed the court that the value of the things stolen was very small, consisting of “a bottle of Lachryma Vitis and a Red Bull,” adding that the defendant was “very sorry” for his actions.

The prosecutors confirmed that Trajkovski had cooperated fully with the police investigation.

Having taken all this into account, the court sentenced the man to imprisonment for one year, suspended for three years.