Burglar jailed 26 months for Hilton theft

A Libyan burglar has been jailed for a total of 26 months after a court found him guilty of the theft of cash, electronics and documents from a suite at the Hilton Hotel in St Julian’s last December, just four days after he had been handed a suspended sentence for stealing a handbag.

Inspector Trevor Micallef had charged 23-year-old Walid Ben Muftah with aggravated theft, dealing in stolen goods and breaching the terms of a suspended sentence.

Magistrate Gabriella Vella had heard how on the 2nd December 2013, at around 1:40AM, the defendant and two others had been seen escaping via the balcony of a hotel room by the room’s guests themselves. The guests told security that the last person of the trio to escape was wearing a red jacket and yellow cap.

The police had been called by hotel security and the accused was soon arrested. He was found sitting outside a pastizzeria in the vicinity, still wearing the bright red jacket and yellow baseball cap. Two of the stolen items- a set of Carrera glasses and a broken set of Fendi glasses were found to be in his possession.

In his submissions the accused argued that the only evidence against him was circumstantial and that the prosecution had not proven that the glasses which had been found on his person were not fakes.

The court however, had heard a string of witness testimony consistently reporting the held that whilst it was an established doctrine that the prosecution was obliged to prove its case beyond reasonable doubt, it was also established that circumstantial evidence could be used to strengthen the prosecution’s case, after it had proven the elements of the offence.

It held that the fact that the glasses found on his person were of the same luxury brand and that one of them had a broken lens corresponding with the one reported stolen constituted a further link in an unbroken chain of evidence tying the accused to the crime.

The court found Muftah guilty of aggravated theft, sentencing him to twenty months imprisonment for this offence, together with a further six months for his suspended sentence which had been rendered active by his conviction.