Five youths caught red-handed trying to steal from bonded stores in Marsa were handed down judgment on Thursday, one of them landing an effective jail term since his voluminous record showed that he had learned nothing from past mistakes.
Neil Zammit, 25; Etienne Buttigieg, 26; Eman Neil Galdes, 24; Kyle Micallef, 20; and Ogden Caruana Smith, 19; returned to court on Thursday following their arraignment on September 4, the day after they were all caught trying to steal from the stores.
Police had been alerted after suspicious-looking men were spotted in the area of il-Moll tal-Ħatab at around 1am on Saturday, the day prior to the arraignment.
Officers from the Rapid Intervention Unit who converged on site came across the suspects in their dark clothes and wearing gloves, while fresh signs of break-in and two sizeable bolt cutters further confirmed police suspicions.
All five youths were charged with attempted aggravated theft and willful damage to third party property.
Zammit, Buttigieg and Galdes were separately charged with relapsing.
All five pleaded guilty and all, except for Zammit, were granted bail while the case was adjourned for judgment.
Thursday’s hearing got off to a false start after one of the accused failed to turn up, prompting the court to order the prosecution to mobilise district officers to search for the accused and escort him straight to court “by 11am”.
However, shortly afterwards all five accused filed into the courtroom.
Buttigieg, the one who had been absent, had apparently got stuck on a bus in heavy traffic, his lawyer explained.
The court accepted his apology and revoked the €2,000 fine dished out earlier when the youth failed to show up at the scheduled time.
After that initial hiccup, the hearing proceeded with the testimony of a probation officer who had followed Zammit for three months, from January till March, and deemed him to have been doing well at the time.
When asked by the magistrate whether she was “disappointed” by Zammit’s lapse back to criminal ways merely a few months after her last assessment, the witness replied, “to say the truth, it is a great disappointment and I did not expect it of him”.
The court suspended the sitting for a while before delivering judgment.
All five were declared guilty upon admission but punishment varied in view of the fact that their criminal records varied from untainted in respect of Micallef and Caruana Smith to voluminous in the case of Zammit who appeared to have “learnt nothing from the past.”
The court took note of their early guilty plea, the serious nature of the charges, the fact that their plans went awry only because they were caught red-handed, the social circumstances of each of the accused, the need to safeguard society as well as the principle of justice.
Caruana Smith, Micallef and Galdes were each conditionally discharged for three years.
Buttigieg was placed under a three-year probation order.
Zammit was jailed for two years but was granted bail after his lawyers requested the non-enforcement of the judgment while the accused filed an appeal.
Inspectors Joseph Mercieca and Andy Rotin prosecuted. Lawyers Jason Azzopardi, Franco Debono, Francesca Zarb, Roberto Spiteri, Mario Mifsud and Matthew Xuereb were defence counsel.