Bulgarian beggar conditionally discharged

A Bulgarian woman was conditionally discharged for a year after pleading guilty to begging in the streets and to being a nuisance.

Maria Varbanova’s lawyer told a court that begging was not illegal in Bulgaria.

Varbanova is the third Bulgarian woman who was convicted of begging this week.

Elena Varbanova, 20, and Paska Stancheva, 23, were conditionally discharged for a month after being charged with vagrancy for soliciting alms in Tower Road and Tigne Point, Sliema. Their legal aid lawyer Anthony Cutajar explained that the women had come to Malta as they had been promised jobs, but could not find the person who had promised the jobs to them after they arrived on the island. He told the court that they had used up all their money to pay for their accommodation and had resorted to begging to raise money to book a flight back to Bulgaria.