Unrepentant thief jailed

The Criminal Court of Appeal has upheld an appeal by the Attorney General and changed a two-year suspended jail term into a 16-month prison term.

Mr Justice David Scicluna noted that the Magistrates' Court had found Vanessa Mifsud guilty of theft exceeding Lm1,000, relapsing and breaking the provisions of a conditional discharge.

The Magistrates' Court had handed down a two-year jail term suspended for four years, placed her under probation for two years and fined her Lm200.

But the Attorney General appealed, arguing that the Magistrates' Court had wrongly applied the law as Mifsud had committed the crime during the period when she was conditionally discharged and, hence, a jail term was mandatory.

Mr Justice Scicluna considered the case as well as the fact that Mifsud had been found guilty of theft before, including in a case involving an elderly person and another case in which Lm5,600 were stolen.

The court noted she had been given several opportunities to change her ways and felt there was no alternative to a prison term.