40-month sentence for Somali who robbed sleeping man

A Somali man has been jailed for a total of 40 months for his involvement in stealing items from a Romanian man sleeping on a Paceville bench, last summer.

33-year-old Abdulahi Mohamed Adow was found guilty of the theft of €40, a mobile phone and credit cards. The court noted that Adow was already on bail for another offence and, in addition, that the crimes were committed during the operative period of a 16-month suspended jail term.

Adow and another Somali man, Bashir Abulahi Ahmed, had both been charged with the thefts. Ahmed had previously pleaded guilty and received a two-year jail term suspended for four years.

The two had been part of a group of four who were spotted by a police officer as they were picking the pockets of Bogdan-Marius Caimaru while he was was asleep on a bench in Paceville in August last year.

The four thieves tried to escape, however the officer successfully detained two, handcuffing one to a nearby vehicle before chasing down a second. The other two managed to escape.

The victim had explained that he had an agreement with his friends that if they were separated in Paceville, they would regroup at the bus stop to catch the 5:30am bus home. He had lost his friends that night and was waiting for them at the bus stop when he fell asleep on the bench. He awoke as he was feeling people touching him.

Magistrate Audrey Demicoli sentenced  Adow to two years imprisonment, besides activating the 16-month suspended jail term which he was already under.