A convicted thief had his five-year jail term reduced to three years after proving he had already served two years under a previous suspended sentence, enforced in 2018.

Stephen Borg, 42, had been convicted by a Magistrates’ Court in January over two separate thefts in Mosta back in 2016. 

One morning in March four years ago, a Rapid Intervention Unit team, patrolling the Mosta and Naxxar area, had spotted a heavily loaded Volkswagen vehicle driven by the accused. There was a female passenger.

That sight had roused the officers’ suspicions since the driver was a familiar face to the police. 

Yet, by the time the policemen had manoeuvred their vehicle, the suspect’s car had vanished from sight. It was discovered a short while later parked in Birkirkara, its windows open, with the key still in the ignition. 

The woman who had been seated in the car earlier on was spotted nearby. 

Inside the vehicle the police found a number of items that were later reported as having been stolen from two garages in Mosta. 

One owner reported a missing toolbox, a Fat Boy bike and a battery-operated toy car. The padlock on the door had disappeared, he said. 

Another owner also discovered that the padlock on his garage door had been broken and the core lock smashed. HiFi equipment, DVD’s and an ornamental cage had gone missing. 

Those items were later identified by the owners among the objects found inside the Volkswagen, registered in the name of a third party and driven by the accused without the necessary licence and insurance cover. 

The man was prosecuted for aggravated theft, wilful damage to third party property, as well as breaching a bail decree and committing the crimes during the operative term of a suspended sentence. 

During appeal stage, the accused proved that the suspended sentence handed down in 2015 had been enforced in 2018, after the accused had been reported to the court for breaching its conditions.

While confirming the conviction in respect of the other accusations, the Court of Criminal Appeal, presided over by Madam Justice Consuelo Scerri Herrera, declared that the accused had already served his punishment in terms of that suspended sentence. 

However, the rest of the evidence proved sufficiently that the accused had been driving the car, stacked with items which were later identified as stolen.

The court confirmed the rest of the judgment, including the three-year jail term. 

Lawyer David Gatt assisted the accused at appeal stage.