Lap dancer pleads guilty

A hard lesson in love was learned by the 55-year-old former boyfriend of an international lap dancer as she used €7,000 he gave her to fund another boyfriend.

The unassuming, petite, pretty 29-year-old blonde, Maria Iuliana Stoica, from Romania, who dances in clubs all over Europe, was out of the country and still in contact with Mario Apap when she asked for money.

Mr Apap told her during one of their regular conversations that if she needed anything she should just ask and, availing herself of the opportunity, she told him she had a bank loan that needed paying, defence lawyer Joseph Giglio said.

He said the loan had actually been taken by a former boyfriend and it was that lie the police took action on. Although his client was charged with both misappropriation and fraud, by law they could not co-exist and, anyway, they were alternate charges.

The lawyer said his client would be pleading guilty to misappropriation.

Magistrate Doreen Clarke took into consideration the circumstances of the case, her admission and clean police record before conditionally discharging her for two years and ordering her to pay the money back.