Two gambling friends on holiday in Malta from Australia were yesterday given a dressing down by a magistrate after they admitted stealing a purse after running out of money in a casino.

Maria Camilleri, 57, and Josephine Saliba, 65, stood sheepishly in the dock as they pleaded guilty to stealing from Mary Lourdes Camilleri on Tuesday.

The two women were at the Oracle Casino, in St Paul’s Bay, at about 3.30pm when they ended up penniless and took the purse from a fellow gambler. It contained about €100 in cash, the court heard.

They were caught on CCTV cameras.

In submissions on punishment, Police Inspector Godwin Scerri informed Magistrate Miriam Hayman the accused did not have a criminal record and were first-time offenders. The purse had since been returned.

The magistrate told the women “it was a very stupid thing... to go on holiday and end up in court”. They nodded in silence.

She conditionally discharged them for two years.

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