Court orders ban on jeweller’s name, indicted for buying €350,000 of stolen goods

Charged under citation and not under arrest, a 54-year-old jeweller from Valletta was placed under a bill of idictment by Magistrate Antonio Micallef Trigona, after hearing evidence from a convicted thief who, together with two accomplices, stolen almost half a million in euros in gold and jewellery from Piazza Antiques, in August of 2011.

Corradino inmate Glen Debattista, who together with another two accomplices admitted to the heist, told the Court about the break-in and how the three had split up the haul.

Debattista added that he had gone to see the accused at his shop in Birkirkara and informed him that the items he was proposing to sell him were stolen.

The witness went on to add that he had visited the accused some four times, and took the stolen jewellery with him in a Lidl shopping bag, and that he knew that each time he went to see the accused, the CCTV cameras would be deliberately switched off in order not to leave a record of the visit.

According to Debattista, the accused paid him €20,000 for €350,000 worth of stolen jewellery.