Mugger sentenced to nine months prison, rehab

A young man from Qormi has been sentenced to nine months imprisonment and ordered to undergo a residential drug rehabilitation programme after he pleaded guilty to mugging two elderly women in separate incidents last May and June.

Before Magistrate Antonio Vella this morning, 22 year-old Shalon Abela admitted to ripping off a choker worth approximately €500 from around the neck of one 60-year-old victim as she was walking through Triq Eldorado, Hamrun in the early afternoon of the 27 May.

The thief had struck again, in a similar fashion and in the same general area, on 14 June, stealing a choker from a 64-year-old woman in Triq Anton Buttigieg in Hamrun. The choker was alleged to be worth €300. 

Abela also pleaded guilty to being a relapser.

His lawyers, Veronique Dalli and Dean Hili, told the court that their client was prepared to file an admission and wanted to start a drug rehabilitation programme.

The court imposed a nine-month prison sentence, together with a recommendation for inclusion in a drug rehabilitation programme, after Dalli informed the magistrate that the prosecution and defence had agreed that this would be an ideal punishment.