A Ħamrun woman, who had been jailed for a year and a half for defrauding a number of shops, had her punishment reduced on appeal after a court heard she suffered from mental health problems.

The woman had admitted to making use of an HSBC chequebook issued under another name to make purchases of €1,610 from Scan Computers, €604 from Forestals, €340 from Peter Blond Ltd, €164 from the Model Shop, €1,322 from Pavi, and €1,233 from Homemate in November 2009.

In a previous court case, she had been convicted of disguising herself as a friend of hers by wearing a wig and glasses and then filing a police report saying she had lost her identity card.

On the strength of that report, she obtained another ID card in her friend’s name as well as the HSBC chequebook used to defraud the shops.

After admitting to the fraud charges the woman had been jailed for a year and a half. But in her appeal, her lawyer Mark Busuttil noted she had bipolar disorder and had no control over her behaviour. Bipolar disorder, also known by its older name ‘manic depression’, is a mental disorder that is characterised by serious mood swings.

The court heard how the woman paid back the money defrauded and was successfully undergoing psychiatric treatment. The jail term was changed to a one-year conditional discharge.

The woman’s name is not being published due to her sensitive state of mental health.