A Libyan thief who was ‘arrested’ by three Romanians when he returned to their apartment was yesterday sentenced to 16 months in jail.

Magistrate Doreen Clarke found Fisel Mofth Abusina, 32, guilty of stealing €900 in cash and a mobile phone from an apartment in Dragonara Road last August, which was during the operative period of a suspended sentence.

One of the men who lived there told the court he had realised someone had broken into his apartment and his mobile phone and the cash he kept at home were missing.

He and his roommates went to inform the security guard, and on their return they found the thief at the apartment so they detained him until the police arrived.

Denying the theft, the accused said he was drinking with his friends at a nearby pub and went to his friend’s apartment to use the bathroom.

But Magistrate Clarke did not find his version credible, especially since the friend’s apartment was on the second floor, not the third.

In addition to a 16-month jail sentence, Mr Abusina was ordered to pay €956 in court expenses. The magistrate also restarted a three-year suspended jail term handed down in June last year rather than turning it into an effective jail term.