A Romanian was yesterday jailed for a week after being found guilty of begging outside churches in Valletta.

Alexandru Luca, 31, would wait in Republic Street for people leaving church after Mass and beg for money, annoying people so much that they filed a report with the police, Police Sergeant Raymond Vella testified yesterday.

The man had "even begged from a priest", he added.

After a week of receiving reports about the Romanian, PS Vella asked him to stop begging as the practice was illegal. Mr Luca disregarded several police orders and carried on asking for alms. He was arraigned looking somewhat the worse for wear and admitted to disobeying police orders and begging.

In handing down judgment, Magistrate Audrey Demicoli took into consideration the fact that the man had been regularly warned to leave church-goers alone for a whole week. Police Inspector James Grech prosecuted.

Legal aid lawyer Martin Fenech appeared for Mr Luca.

Sign up to our free newsletters

Get the best updates straight to your inbox:
Please select at least one mailing list.

You can unsubscribe at any time by clicking the link in the footer of our emails. We use Mailchimp as our marketing platform. By subscribing, you acknowledge that your information will be transferred to Mailchimp for processing.