A guest who stole some €700 in cash gifts from a wedding has been conditionally discharged after a court was told that she had refunded the money.

Roanna Mallia, 28, from Mellieha was summoned before magistrate Monica Vella this afternoon by Inspector Maurice Curmi, accused of stealing cash from a wedding at a St Paul’s Bay Hotel.

She was also accused of breaching the conditions of a conditional discharge she had received in 2016, also for theft.

The police and defence approached the bench and discussed the case out of earshot of the press. Sources close to the investigation said that the police were called when the woman had been spotted helping herself to the contents of a newlywed couple’s gift collection basket at their wedding reception on September 23.

Inspector Maurice Curmi told the court that the accused had returned all the money she had stolen.

Mallia pleaded guilty to the charges.

The court conditionally discharged the woman for 3 years.

Lawyer Joanne Farrugia was defence counsel.