A man who has been in court repeatedly over theft charges was yesterday jailed for 21 months after he admitted committing a string of thefts from shops in Sliema and Valletta in 2012.

Stephen Galli, 50, from Sliema, had been given several chances to reform but he persisted in criminality, Magistrate Ian Farrugia said as he sentenced him to jail.

“A 50-year-old should know that what he did was wrong and illegal.

“If he had a drug problem, he should seek help,” he said, adding that Mr Galli had never seized the opportunity to reform.

He also found him guilty of committing the crimes while he was on bail in another case.

Mr Galli pleaded guilty to stealing clothes from a store in Sliema and Ray-Ban sunglasses from a shop in Valletta on April 19, 2012.

He also admitted to damaging a pair of sunglasses at the SunLab outlet in Sliema and to breaching the conditions of previous releases.

Magistrate Farrugia jailed him for 21 months.

Police Inspector Chris Pullicino prosecuted.

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.