Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/1494347
6 maltatoday | WEDNESDAY • 8 MARCH 2023 NEWS NEWS MATTHEW AGIUS A gambling addict has been jailed for robbing a betting shop at knifepoint, telling the court that he had resorted to stealing because his employer had not paid him his full wage. Foday Saidy, 25, a deliveryman from Gambia, admitted to hav- ing stolen €1,900 and holding the shop's 22-year-old salesgirl against her will during the heist, which happened in Msida last Friday. Saidy was arraigned before Magistrate Elaine Mercieca Rizzo and charged with theft, aggravat- ed by violence, holding the wom- an against her will and carrying a knife in public without a licence. As soon as he was led into the courtroom, Saidy informed the court that he would be pleading guilty, even before a legal aid law- yer could be appointed to assist him. The court pointed out that the charges meant that he was facing a potential custodial sen- tence and ordered lawyer Martin Farrugia to represent the accused as legal aid. From the dock, Saidy insisted that wasn't a criminal, but had a gambling addiction and had committed the crime because his employer had failed to pay him his wages. The defendant told the court that he had been living in Malta for some time and had al- ways paid his taxes. The defendant had no fixed address and would change his address frequently, he said, tell- ing the court that he last lived in Qormi. The court was told that after he was identified from CCTV footage, Saidy was arrested on Sunday, while travelling on a bus. The knife used during the com- mission of the offence, with a dis- tinctive broken blade, was found in his backpack. Defence lawyer Martin Farru- gia, appointed as legal aid coun- sel, argued that the defendant was "also a victim" in this case, having been betrayed by his em- ployer. Prosecuting police inspectors Lydon Zammit, Stephen Gulia and Jonathan Ransley insisted on a custodial sentence. In its submissions on punish- ment, the defence requested a punishment on the lower end of the scale, arguing that Saidy had no intention of hurting anyone and wanted to apologise for his actions. The lawyer described the de- fendant as a "victim of the cir- cumstances and the way his em- ployer treated him." Saidy was handed an 18-month prison sentence by the court, which also bound him not to ap- proach the woman again, against a €1800 personal guarantee. Gambian deliveryman jailed for gambling shop stick-up says his employer had not paid him Homeless baker repaid elderly man's kindness by draining his bank account, court told JOSEPH Sciberras, a 46-year-old baker from Zabbar has been re- manded in custody after being ac- cused of having withdrawn nearly €5,000 from a bank account be- longing to the elderly man who had taken him in off the street. Sciberras was arraigned this af- ternoon before Magistrate Elaine Mercieca Rizzo by Police Inspec- tors Darren Buhagiar and Kurt Farrugia, accused of several acts constituting the offence of aggra- vated theft from his octogenarian victim in January and February. According to Inspector Darren Buhagiar, on 21 February, the Zabbar police station received a report from the elderly victim, who had contacted HSBC after being unable to withdraw cash from an ATM. The bank informed him that there had been many withdrawals, leaving only around €5 in his account, from a previous balance of just under €5,000. The man insisted with the police that he had not made those with- drawals. Inspector Buhagiar told the court that the man's bank state- ment showed regular withdrawals from his HSBC account made at a BOV ATM in Zabbar, with over €100 being withdrawn on every occasion. The victim told the police that he had never lost his card but said that he had been allowing a home- less man to stay in his house and suspected him. When the victim had challenged the homeless man about the unauthorised withdraw- als, the defendant had replied that the victim had given him the debit card, said the inspector. A plea of not guilty was entered on Sciberras' behalf by his lawyer, Martin Farrugia, who was ap- pointed by the court to represent the defendant as legal aid. Farrugia requested bail for his client, but Inspector Buhagiar objected, saying that the man had no place of residence after he was kicked out of his moth- er's house for stealing from his brother. He described Sciberras as having "every vice, including drugs, drinking, and gambling, and has been that way for the past 20 years." Inspector Kurt Farrugia added to the prosecution's submissions on bail, pointing out that the accused "had taken advantage of the hos- pitality of a kind-hearted elder- ly man to take all of his money." There was also a strong risk of the accused tampering with evidence, as he had told the police that he lived with a friend in Zabbar and worked in the town too. The defence lawyer argued that "liberty was the rule and detention was the exception." He also not- ed that Sciberras had specified a place of residence and described the comments about the man's relationship with his mother and brother as "capricious." "The only good argument brought by the prosecution was that of the risk of tampering with evidence," he said, but pointed out that the withdrawals had to have been made using a card in an ATM, which meant that all the relevant evidence was already pre- served as the accused had no way of changing the bank's records. The court denied the bail re- quest, after taking into consider- ation the gravity of the offences with which Sciberras was charged and the fact that the victim, whose age rendered him a vulnerable person at law, was yet to testify. JOSEPH Sciberras, a 46-year-old count made at a BOV ATM in a kind-hearted elderly man to Baker remanded in custody after being accused of having withdrawn nearly €5,000 from a bank account belonging to the elderly man who had taken him in off the street