A man has had the penalty given after a guilty verdict changed from a suspended sentence to a probation order and 100 hours of community work.

In December 2016, Tarek Khodir was found guilty over multiple counts of aggravated theft, voluntary damage of third-party property and breaching a conditional discharge.

It had transpired that Khodir stole some cash and thousands of cigarettes from two bars, one in Hamrun and one in Naxxar. The cigarettes stolen had a value of around €6,000.

The first court sentenced Khodir to two years imprisonment suspended for four and ordered him to pay a fine of €2,732 in the space of six months. The accused had submitted an admission of guilt and was reportedly cooperative. The first court also ordered that the period of conditional discharge start afresh from the day the December 2016 judgment was issued.

Upon hearing the judgment, an appeal was filed by the Attorney General. It was argued that the first court could never have handed the accused a two-year prison term suspended for four because the laws covering his aggravated theft provide for a minimum sentence of at least 18 months.

The first court’s decision to extend the conditional period of discharge so that it may start anew was also called into question by the AG who argued there is no legal basis for this. From the previous case which led to the conditional discharge, cannabis was found in the accused’s blood.

A report exhibited by a probation officer however found that Khodir had turned up for every appointment, submitted himself to drug tests as requested by the police and had come up clean every time. This led to a recommendation for the accused to benefit from an alternative penalty rather than a conditional discharge. The court took note of the accused’s reformed state and also argued that the AG was wrong in its interpretation of the law.

The court, presided over by Madam Justice Edwina Grima cited another chapter of the criminal code to show how the first court’s judgment was indeed within the parameters of the law.

The court of appeal confirmed the guilty verdict against X but turned a two-year prison term suspended for four years into a two-year probation order and 100 hours of community service.