A man with a long-tainted criminal record was remanded in custody, pending a drawing up of a pre-sentencing report, after admitting to theft-related charges on Monday.

Joseph Camilleri, a 47-year old Valletta resident, was arrested as the prime suspect behind the theft of a man’s HTC mobile phone, credit card and Tallinja bus card in Floriana on Sunday morning.

The suspect pleaded guilty to the theft, attempting to withdraw cash with the stolen bank card and another theft of tobacco and shaving razors from a Floriana store.

He was further charged with breaching bail conditions and committing the offences while under a probation order.

“The circumstances are what they are,” defence lawyer Arthur Azzopardi said, pointing out that his client had spent most of his adulthood battling “the same problem.”

In fact, the accused had recently been kicked out of a Sedqa-run rehabilitation program and had just been discharged from hospital, Dr Azzopardi explained, requesting a pre-sentencing report.

In the light of such circumstances, the court, presided over by magistrate Joseph Mifsud, upheld the request, taking all necessary steps to recommend that the accused is meanwhile given all necessary medical assistance in prison.

There was no request for bail and the accused was remanded in custody pending continuation of the case.

Inspector Priscilla Caruana Lee prosecuted.

Sign up to our free newsletters

Get the best updates straight to your inbox:
Please select at least one mailing list.

You can unsubscribe at any time by clicking the link in the footer of our emails. We use Mailchimp as our marketing platform. By subscribing, you acknowledge that your information will be transferred to Mailchimp for processing.