Another beggar was yesterday conditionally discharged for a year after he admitted to harassing people for money in Sliema – where such cases have been mushrooming.

“There seems to be a circle of people coming to Malta and, when police manage to remove two, another two arrive,” Police Inspector Jason Sultana said in court yesterday.

Magistrate Josette Demicoli heard Romanian 56-year-old Petrica Balteanu admit to living as a vagabond and harassing people for money on Sunday.

Mr Balteanu, who said he had no fixed residence in Malta, was the fifth person to face similar charges in a month. In January, four Bulgarian women were charged with begging and harassing people in Sliema and were conditionally discharged.

Sources explained that the Bulgarian and Romanian beggars had come to Malta through legal channels. Police could not deport them once caught begging since they did not have the authority to do so. However, in most cases, once caught, they left the island.

The “mushrooming” number of beggars in Sliema was pointed out by Sliema mayor Anthony Chircop during a press conference last month.

Mr Chircop and other councillors called on the authorities to enforce the law with regard to illegal structures, hawkers and beggars in the locality.

Under Maltese law, it is illegal to lead an idle and vagrant life.

The law also says that anyone who does not own property, has no other means of subsistence and “fails to show that he has habitually endeavoured to engage in or exercise some art, trade or other occupation,” is also breaking the law.

Lawyer Simon Micallef Stafrace represented the accused.