Two courier services employees guilty of stealing iPhones

Two men in their fifties were ordered community work after admitting to stealing nine mobile phones from their place of work, Airmalta Cargo System, Courier Warehouse in Luqa

54-year-old Joseph Aquilina and 57-year-old Giuseppe Grech, of Zabbar and Attard respectively, were ordered to perform 125 hours of community work.

The value of the mobile phones stolen, all iPhones, totalled €7,300. Seven of the phones were retrieved from a mobile phone shop in Qormi; another was found in the possession of Aquilina’s nephew and another one was passed on to Grech’s daughter.

According to Aquilina, the mastermind of the thefts was a FedEx employee.

A third man, Adrian Caruana was also charged with the same theft and testified in the case against Aquilina and Grech.

He said he worked as a courier and when he collected the parcels he found an extra box with nine iPhones inside.

Rather than going through normal procedure he kept the box and shared the phones with the accused.

Magistrate Neville Camilleri ruled that the prosecution had exhibited enough evidence to find the accused guilty as charged.

However given that both men had a clean police conduct, the court said that community work was more a fitting punishment than jail time.

Aquilina and Grech were also ordered to pay €110 in court expenses.