A teenager who admitted to 13 thefts from various various hotel rooms has been handed a suspended sentence, with a magistrate warning him that he had caused irreparable damage to the country's reputation. 

The 16-year-old boy, whose name cannot be published by court order as he was still a minor, formed part of a gang of criminals who targeted hotel rooms in various hotels in the St Paul's Bay area. 

Magistrate Anthony Vella was told that the value of the items stolen amounted to more than €8,000. The items stolen included cash, mobiles, digital cameras, laptops and other electronic equipment. 

His defence lawyer, Abigail Bugeja, argued that her client was "passing through a bad patch in his life" and that bad company had led him astray. She said her client had been "in the wrong place at the wrong time". 

But Police Inspector Kurt Zahra replied that her client had not committed one theft but 13, which meant he had 13 opportunities to reconsider his actions. To this, the lawyer replied that the prosecution was after "the pound of flesh". 

The inspector replied that the thefts had been well planned and executed by a gang, adding that the police had not yet succeeded in identifying all of the people whose belongings had been stolen, as many had left the island. 

He told the court that the items had been distributed among the gang and that a stolen laptop had been found in the teen's bedroom. 

In handing down his judgment, Magistrate Vella rued the "irreparable harm these crimes had done to the country's image" and told the youth: "No matter how young you are, these things are not done." He sentenced him to two years in jail suspended for four years. 

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.