A cleaner was this morning conditionally discharged for three years after she admitted to stealing €2,500 in cash from her employer, kitchen supplier Casanova, in St Thomas Street, Luqa, yesterday.

When the case was being heard Magistrate Joseph Apap Bologna remarked to the police inspector Jurgen Vella that the accused had a clean police record and was considered a first time offender. He asked him what he thought the punishment should be.

Inspector Vella said he believed Rita Pulis, 36, of Zabbar, was trusted and should be given a suspended jail term.

At this point, her lawyer Ann Marie Spiteri said everybody made mistakes and her client had returned the stolen money.

However, Inspector Vella said the only reason she did so was because she had been caught. Dr Spiteri rebutted that her client had originally kept the money because she panicked.

Lawyer John Vassallo, who happened to be in the court room, asked the magistrate if he could interrupt and pointed out that this woman's criminal record would be forever tarnished with a suspended jail term.

This, he said, was the philosophy behind a conditional discharge.

The magistrate told the inspector that this was another point that had to be considered.

As the magistrate read out his judgement, conditionally discharging Ms Pulis for three years, she burst into tears, said she was very sorry and apologised for her behaviour.

Dr Spiteri asked for a court order to ban the publication of her client's name to which request the magistrate replied "certainly not".