Bashir Abulahi Ahmed, a 21-year-old Somali living in Malta was today given a two-year jail term suspended for four years after he admitted to stealing €40, a mobile phone, credit cards and other personal documents from Romanian Bogdan-Marius Caimaru.

His 32-year-old compatriot Abdulahi Mohamed Adow, who pleaded not guilty, was remanded in custody. He was additionally charged with committing a crime during the operative period of a suspended jail term and while on bail in a separate case.

The two Somalians were among a group of four people allegedly seen rifling through the pockets of Mr Caimaru by Police Sergeant Andrew St John early on Sunday.

Mr Caimaru was asleep on a bench in Paceville.

On seeing the officer, the four men ran away. PS St John managed to grab one of them and handcuffed him to the bull bar of a nearby car before taking off to chase the second person. The other two managed to escape.

Taking the witness stand, Mr Caimaru said he had gone to Paceville with friends.

Whenever they went to there, he said, they had an agreement that if they ever got separated they would meet near the bus stop for the 5.30am bus which would take them home.

He said that on this night, he got separated from his friends and was waiting for them at the bus stop.

As he was waiting, he fell asleep on a bench and at one point felt people touching him. He said Mr Adow was closest to him and leaning over. Mr Caimaru said that a police officer was there almost instantly and arrested the man. He said that all he had had to drink that evening was one glass of wine and a cocktail and he was definitely not drunk.

Sign up to our free newsletters

Get the best updates straight to your inbox:
Please select at least one mailing list.

You can unsubscribe at any time by clicking the link in the footer of our emails. We use Mailchimp as our marketing platform. By subscribing, you acknowledge that your information will be transferred to Mailchimp for processing.