Alfred Bugeja, aka Il-Porporina, was jailed for three years yesterday and banned from driving for 10 years after he was found guilty of stealing two bags from a woman and driving under a previously imposed ban.

This was the second jail term handed down to Mr Bugeja this year.

In August, he was jailed for five years after he admitted to robbing and slightly injuring a 65-year-old woman, stealing an Austin Mini, damaging a parked van, disobeying police orders, driving dangerously and breaching the conditions of two previous releases.

In the case relating to the jail term he received yesterday, Mr Bugeja had stopped his car near a lotto booth in Burmarrad on August 23, 2008 and let down a tyre of the cashier's car.

As the cashier, Maria Suda, closed the booth in the early afternoon, she noticed that she had a puncture and a man appeared and offered to help her change it.

When she placed her bags on the back seat of her car, the man grabbed them and took off running. Two people who live near the scene of the robbery, Pacifico and Teresa Agius, testified that they had seen a Mercedes Benz with two men in it.

Police Inspector Anthony Portelli said there was an anonymous phone call that gave a description of the car and the number plate and through this information they managed to identify Mr Bugeja.

Magistrate Doreen Clarke said no evidence was brought to show that Mr Bugeja had been driving the car without insurance cover but only driving it without a licence.

The magistrate said that before handing down judgment she took into consideration the large number of convictions on Mr Bugeja's criminal record and that it was clear he had not learned from his past mistakes.

Neither had he learned that laws were there to be respected and he had shown no remorse for his actions, she added.