A bus ticket found outside an apartment that had just been robbed led to a police breakthrough in the case of a spate of thefts in Sliema, it emerged in court yesterday.

The police also found that one of five individuals suspected of having been involved in the robberies – Mate Oniani, 25 – had tattoos indicating he was part of a foreign criminal organisation. These denoted a member’s rank within the organisation.

These details emerged during the compilation of evidence against five people who allegedly committed the thefts from Sliema, St Julian’s, Gżira, St Paul’s Bay and Pietà.

The accused are Kartlos Dolaberidze, 41, from Georgia; Krzysztof Tadeusz Latocha, 30, from Poland; a man without official documents claiming to be Algidras Sliogeris, 49, from Lithuania; Adilet Shakirgazieva, 27, from Kyrgyzstan, and Mr Oniani, from Georgia.

They are pleading not guilty to a series of charges, including forming an organisation of two or more people with the intent of committing a crime and of having robbed a number of apartments in Sliema over the past two years.

The court was informed that the items stolen from the apartments were usually valuable – cash, gold and jewelry – and that the robbers did not force entry.

Police Inspector Jonathan Ransley referred to a theft of €50,000 in gold, jewels and other items from an apartment in Tignè last year. He also mentioned another theft of items worth €25,000 from an apartment in Sir Adrian Dingli Street and a robbery from the apartment of Magistrate Ian Farrugia.

Mr Ransley said the breakthrough in the investigations came after a robbery from an apartment in Triq Nazzareno, Sliema, where jewellery and €9,000 in cash were stolen. A bus ticket for route 12 bought in Qawra at about 6.40pm was found outside the apartment block. The police suspected that the thieves were commuting by bus to get to their targets and they established that they lived in Qawra.

They examined CCTV footage covering bus stops in Sliema and Qawra and two men spotted outside an apartment that had been robbed were caught on film. On September 9, police officers followed Mr Latocha and Mr Dolaberidze and one of the officers boarded the bus with them. The two were arrested when they got off at St Paul’s Bay.

The police later found out that the two lived in Andrew Cunningham Street, Qawra. At that address, they found the three other accused and a search yielded a object that was used to pick door locks, similar to another they had found in a robbed apartment in Gżira. When the officer picked up the gadget, Mr Sliogeris said: “It’s not mine”, Mr Ransley testified.

Bump keys, cash, jewelry, watches, a small driller and tools to file keys were also found.

Following his arrest, Mr Sliogeris said he would not speak and the others said they were scared and did not disclose information about where the stolen items had ended up. The court turned down the request for bail and Ms Shakirgazieva burst into tears. The case continues on October 2. Lawyer Joseph Mizzi appeared for the accused.