A woman has been remanded in custody after being charged with five counts of theft.

49 year-old Brenda Mallia from Valletta was accused of stealing a wallet from a house in Paola on 18 August, and a pouch from another house in the locality that night. She was also accused of the simple theft of €120 from a third house in Paola on June 12, stealing gold from a fourth house, also in Paola on August 3 and stealing a man’s mobile phone in Fgura on August 2.

Mallia, who has a string of past convictions for theft, was also accused of handling stolen goods and recidivism.

Three of the charges were aggravated by value of the goods stolen. One was aggravated by violence, as the owner of the stolen wallet was slightly injured whilst being robbed.

A number of incident reports were exhibited by prosecuting police inspector Paul Camilleri.

Defence counsel lawyer Joe Giglio told Magistrate Astrid May Grima that the accused was pleading not guilty but would not be requesting bail at this stage.

In view of the woman’s drug dependency problems, the court upheld a request to order the prison authorities to assist her with them.