Serial thief jailed for four years

Carmel Mugliette, 53, from Marsascala, was sentenced to four years in prison after admitting to stealing €15,000 worth of jewellery from a Valletta shop.

The theft occurred moments after Mugliette left the building of the law courts, having appeared in court in a separate case.

The shop is less than 50 meters from the law courts.

The serial thief lured one of the salesgirls to open the displays with the excuse that he was interested in the items inside. Mugliette managed to take two watches and place them in his pocket and make for the door seemingly empty handed.

However he was spotted by another salesgirl who questioned him about the watches. He returned the two watches claiming he was not in his right senses and apologised.

Although he seemed uninterested in purchasing any items, Mugliette remained in the shop and managed to get his hands on a showcase key, after a salesgirl left it on the desk and went into another room.

Mugliette proceeded to open a display and make away with a number of expensive rings. He was later identified through CCTV cameras and arrested. None of the stolen items, worth €15,000 was retrieved, but police found €340 in cash in his possession.

In his arraignment yesterday, Mugliette admitted to the theft and Magistrate Audrey Demicoli put off the case for today for judgement. Re-appearing before court, the man confirmed his guilty plea and was handed a four-year jail term.

Mugliette said he wanted to appeal judgement and called on the court to grant him bail.

However Magistrate Demicoli threw out his requests saying that the accused could not be granted bail as judgement had been delivered and that if he wanted to appeal he had to follow procedure.

Inspectors Jeffrey Scicluna and Daryl Borg prosecuted and Legal Aid Martin Fenech represented the accused.