A man has been handed a seven-year jail term after admitting to a string of violent thefts including 15 targeting vehicles and two snatch-and-grab robberies wherein pedestrians were slightly injured.

Bjorn Borg, 36, registered an admission to 34 charges relating to 15 separate instances of theft from vehicles committed between August 8 and 25 from various localities including Għajn Tuffieħa, Floriana, Pieta, Pembroke, Gżira, St Julian’s, Marsa and Swieqi.

The accused also pleaded guilty to two muggings. The first one took place along the Ta’ Xbiex seafront late in the evening on August 7, when he made off with a woman’s handbag, slightly injuring her. 

The following day, he attempted another snatch and grab along the Sliema promenade, once again slightly injuring two pedestrians in the attack.

The accused had also attempted to withdraw €500 from an ATM using a card stolen from one of the vehicles.

The accused was also charged with relapsing and with breaching the terms of a suspended sentence handed down in May 2018.

“It was not acceptable for people to go through such an experience,” declared the court when handing down judgment in the light of the accused’s own admission.

Our streets are to be free of all danger, said Magistrate Joseph Mifsud, especially violence against law-abiding citizens whose only intention would be to get back home safe and sound rather than face such a traumatic experience.

The court also observed that such physical violence called for effective imprisonment, thus handing down a jail term of seven years and one month.

Police inspectors Fabian Fleri and Lydon Zammit prosecuted.