A man charged with attempted theft on Tuesday admitted to his wrongdoing and declared in open court that he would not commit another offence in society.

Maltese-born Ashraf Sultan, 32, was arrested shortly after police on Monday received a report that a man was attempting to break into a residence in Iklin. Although the suspect ran off without carrying on with his plan, he was soon captured and brought to justice.

Standing before duty magistrate Neville Camilleri, the man nodded in confirmation of his guilty plea to the charges of attempted aggravated theft and voluntary damage to third party property.

Inspector Roderick Spiteri pointed out that although the accused had a perfectly clean criminal record, what he had done was wrong nonetheless and was to be punished.

Lawyer Christopher Chircop argued that in this case, given the fact that this was his client’s first brush with the law, he deserved to not be punished excessively.

The man was given a16-month jail term suspended for two years.