32-year-old Tripoli born Fisel Mofth Abusnina was found guilty of stealing a Galaxy S3 mobile phone worth €150 and €900 in cash from a person called Negoi Valentin from an apartment on Dragonara street St Julian’s on 22 August 2014 and was sentenced to 16 months in prison.

He was also, at the time, under a suspended sentence.

The Court heard that early in the morning on the aforementioned date,  Mr Negoi was returning to his apartment while accompanied by a certain Constantin Coltisor. Mr Coltisor remained outside while Mr Negoi entered, and quickly called for his friend when he suspected that he had been robbed. His room was found in quite a state and Mr Negoi confirmed that the phone and the cash was missing. They awoke his roommate, Mr Dobritanu and went to Apartment security however found no one stationed.

Mr Dobritanu remained in the apartment and upon hearing a door close went to check if Negoi had returned. It turned out to be the accused and not Mr Negoi, and Dobritanu proceeded to stop him from leaving.

Police then arrived on scene and found three people holding down the accused, who was then arrested. They searched the accused however found nothing on him.

CCTV camera footage was also presented, and the accused appeared a number of times in them, at times on his own and sometimes accompanied by another person. He was seen entering the apartment block a number of times.

The accused claims that he was drinking with a friend in St Julian’s when they needed to use the bathroom, and so he went to his friend’s place situated on the second floor of the apartment block. He found his friend’s door slightly open and a Romanian person came out. He then asked for his friend and a total of three Romanians held him and the police arrived. He told police that he could not remember his friend’s flat number . In the cross-examination however, he admitted to going to the specific flat twice however denied any theft.

Magstrate Doreen Clarke found the accused’s testimony not to be credible, not only due to the discrepancy between what he told police and what he told the court regarding the number of times he entered the flat, but also as he made claims that appeared not to be true. “The accused says that his friend has an apartment on the second floor, yet he twice went to the third floor. When he needed to use the bathroom while near St George’s Bay, he decided to go and use his friend’s bathroom at 5 am, when a few hours earlier he couldn’t find his friend’s apartment . In addition, footage taken at 1.45 am show the accused and his friend attempting to open a door on the third floor.

He was condemned to 16 months in prison and ordered to pay €956.56 for cexpenses. The Court chose to extend his suspended sentence for three years as opposed to rendering it active.