St. Paul's Bay burglar jailed for three years

Magistrate Rachel Montebello has jailed a woman for just over three years after she admitted to stealing cash and other items from three apartments in St. Paul’s Bay.

46 year-old St. Paul’s Bay resident Meriam Abdussalam Mouaddea from Morocco was jailed for 37 months and had her €300 bail deposit seized after she was found guilty of theft.

Mouaddea had been charged with stealing from three apartments in St. Paul’s Bay between May and June this year, breaching conditions for bail that she had been granted in April and recidivism. €2700 in cash was stolen from one residence, the court observed.

The woman has a number of previous convictions and had been sentenced to prison for three years for theft in 2017.

The court heard Inspector Sean Pawney testify that the accused had been given instructions by a third party to carry out the thefts in order to pay for her accommodation at the third party’s property.

The accused pleaded guilty on 30 June this year, confirming her plea after being given time by the court to reconsider.

In sentencing Mouaddea, magistrate Rachel Montebello took into account the serious nature of the charges, the substantial monetary value of the items stolen, her guilty plea and the fact that she was a recidivist. Also taken into account was the fact that she had been released on bail just a few weeks before committing the thefts and that she already had several convictions for theft

The court described her crimes as “condemnable in the harshest manner” and concluded that the woman was not eligible for a punishment in the community. “It is clearly obvious that despite the punishments inflicted upon her, the accused chose to continue down the path of criminality and evidently is not interested in reforming herself.”

On the other hand, said the magistrate, the accused had cooperated with the police, admitting immediately during her interrogation and leading them to the third party implicated in the crimes. All of the stolen cash and items had been recovered by the police from the accsued, leading the court to opt not to apply the increase to her punishment for recidivism.

Finding her guilty on her own admission, the court sentenced Mouaddea to imprisonment for 37 months and the confiscation of her bail deposit.