Man gets maximum probation sentence for stealing from two cars

A man has been placed on probation after breaking into a car in June.

Inspector Sarah Zerafa told magistrate Natasha Galea Sciberras how the police had received a report of a theft from a vehicle parked in Fgura on 1 June. CCTV of the incident showed two men carrying out the theft.

One man was seen smashing the car’s window and handing the car’s contents to an accomplice, identified as Sean Grech, 29, from Cospicua, she said.

Grech had been arrested and questioned, before being released on police bail.

He was later placed on the wanted list after failing to sign his bail book. Yesterday, officers from the Rapid Intervention Unit had been responding to a report of theft of wheel rims from an abandoned car in a field and found them in another field, together with the accused, asleep in his car. He was arrested. A small amount of cannabis was found in his possession.

Grech pleaded guilty to the charges of aggravated theft and cannabis possession on Friday morning.

In his submissions on punishment, lawyer Simon Micallef Stafrace, appointed as legal aid to the accused, told the court that the man’s crimes were not serious. The man stole to sustain his drug habit, said the lawyer, pointing out that the man’s previous convictions were all drug possession related.  He had spent the past nine years visiting the detox centre. “I don’t normally steal,” piped up the accused.

The court, having seen the man’s guilty plea, placed him on probation for the legal maximum of three years. The magistrate sternly warned the man that he was facing 14 months in prison on these charges if he committed another offence or failed to keep his appointments with the probation officer. He was also fined €70 for cannabis possession.