Three men stole €500k jewellery

A father, his son and another man yesterday admitted to stealing €500,000 worth of antique jewellery and diamonds from a shop in Valletta.

Glen Debattista, 52, from Sta Venera and his 21-year-old son Ryan, together with Carmel Hartley, 40, stole the items between August 6 and 8 last year from Pjazza Antiques Limited.

Besides the jewellery haul, they also admitted to trying to steal cash from a HSBC ATM situated at Wembley Stores in Republic Street, Valletta, in September last year and relapsing.

The Debattistas were granted bail pending judgement against a personal guarantee of €10,000 each.

Mr Hartley’s defence counsel, lawyer Stefano Filletti, told the court that his client was already serving time for other theft-related cases. The jail term of four years meted out to him was unjust as the magistrate in that case had incorrectly computed the punishment, he claimed.

He asked Magistrate Antonio Mizzi to exercise clemency when dealing with his client.