A career fraudster who duped residence owners into thinking she was an excellent maid made off with thousands of euro worth of jewellery, a court has heard. 

Annabelle Camilleri Monreal, 30, from Xemxija, admitted to stealing almost €4,500 worth of jewellery and other items from a residence in St Julian's after she posed as a maid and was hired to clean the apartment. 

She also pleaded guilty to adopting the same trick that led to the theft of thousands of euros worth of items from a residence in St Paul's Bay. 

Ms Camilleri Monreal is a serial fraudster whose name is synonymous with tricking people into renting apartments and villas that do not belong to her. She has already spent time in jail over the fraud cases and has a sizeable list of pending cases. 

Despite her conviction sheet, Magistrate Carol Peralta opted to impose a suspended jail term because it is only this punishment that enables the court to order a person to repay their victims. 

She was jailed for two years suspended for four years and ordered to pay the owners of the St Julian's residence the €4,950 she owes them. She had already settled with the victims of the other theft, by returning the items that she had stolen. 

Ms Camilleri Monreal was in 2013 convicted of the infamous scam involving Gozo farmhouses, whereby she defrauded six people by taking deposit for farmhouse rentals when the property was not hers.

She was back in court over similar cases last year, pleading guilty to renting an apartment in St Paul's Bay, making a copy of the key and then taking her victims to show the apartment and take deposits for its rental. On that occasion, she accepted a €600 deposit and €400 for the first month. 

In court last year, a police inspector had said that the police had a "queue" of people waiting to file complaints against Ms Camilleri Monreal. He had also said that she had entered a vicious circle by defrauding more people to repay her previous victims. 

Ms Camilleri Monreal has other pending fraud cases, including one in which she is accused of defrauding her former employer, Zahra Trading and Properties. 

Lawyers Franco Debono, Angie Muscat and Amadeus Cachia was defence counsel. 

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