A pregnant woman jailed for 16 months after being caught trying to steal a wallet has filed an appeal, saying the sentence does not fit the crime. 

Parashkeva Ivanova was handed the 16-month sentence after pleading guilty to having stolen a wallet valued at €300 on a number 13 bus leaving the airport on August 25. Ms Ivanova had arrived in Malta the previous day and spent the night in the airport parking lot.

She has now filed an appeal against the sentence, arguing that she is a first-time offender with no previous criminal convictions, that the legal aid service provided to her was not up to the task and that she was found guilty of aggravated theft despite all evidence suggesting that the crime was one of attempted theft.  

While calling on the Appeals Court to either revoke Ms Ivanova's sentence or to hand her one more fitting with her crime, Ms Ivanova's lawyers also highlighted problems with Malta's existing system of legal aid.

Concerns about the legal aid system have surfaced with regularity over the past years, with Justice Minister Owen Bonnici having previously said that foreign prisoners were "100 per cent right" to complain about the existing system.

Under the current system, legal aid lawyers are paid for by the prosecution and selected from a restricted roster of advocates. A 2013 report on judicial reform proposed 97 changes to the current system. 

Last month, a police inspector told a court that foreign pickpockets were coming to Malta with the express intention of stealing. Suspended sentences, the inspector argued, were not acting as a deterrent. 

Ms Ivanova, her lawyers wrote in her appeal, had cooperated with authorities from the earliest possible instance and was keen to leave Malta and return to her children. 

The appeal was signed by lawyers Franco Debono, Shazoo Ghaznavi, Amadeus Cachia and Robert Galea.