Jailed for burgling same house twice

A Gozitan was yesterday jailed for 20 months after he broke into the same house twice and made off with over €2,000 of goods and cash.

The 38-year-old thief, Christopher Shepherd, of Victoria, admitted to breaking and entering a Pembroke house in two separate burglaries on March 1 and 2.

Mr Shephard is currently in police custody on other theft charges.

In yesterday's arraignment, Police Inspector Keith Arnaud said Mr Shephard had only paid back the owner €60 for a DVD player he had taken.

Mr Shepard, in fact, stole several household items, including a TV set, a portable Playstation and, in the second burglary, actually made away with €800 in cash.

The owner of the house only realised it had been broken into two days after the second burglary took place, Inspector Arnaud said.

The prosecution and defence discussed the punishment between themselves before they told Magistrate Joseph Apap Bologna that they had agreed on a jail term of 20 months.

After taking into consideration that he had filed an early guilty plea, the court jailed the man for 18 months.

Lawyers Emmanuel Mallia and Arthur Azzopardi appeared for the accused.