A Romanian man serving a three-year term for theft is wanted in Italy in connection with organised crime.

Ilie Nicolae, 29, consented to be extradited to Italy, where he is expected to serve three years in jail after an Italian court convicted him in absentia over charges related to organised crime.

Due to the amnesty announced by the Government to mark Labour’s electoral victory, he would have been released in November rather than in February next year.

He was jailed in March last year after admitting, together with three colleagues – Niculae Dragos, 23, Dumitru Marius, 27, and Christian Panaitescu, 26 – to 14 counts of theft from shops in Sliema and St Julian’s, The Point shopping centre and the Bay Street shopping complex.

The haul was estimated to run into thousands of euros.

After sentencing, they had filed a constitutional application claiming discrimination on grounds that the punishment was harsher than was the norm for such cases.

They also claimed they had not been informed of their right of appeal and that they were not given a fair hearing.

The court ruled that their fundamental human rights had not been breached.