A man who had bought a mobile phone that was stolen from a woman in a snatch and grab incident was given a suspended jail term.

Renè Harmsworth, 26, was found with the phone after investigators tracked it down with the help of the service provider, Go Mobile, in 2005. The phone had been taken from a woman who was walking in Ħamrun when a man grabbed her handbag from behind her and ran off.

When the police called him in for questioning and asked about the phone, he said he bought it from near the detox centre for Lm10 and admitted to suspecting it could have been stolen when he had purchased it. Police Inspector Carmelo Magri testified that Mr Harmsworth denied ever stealing the phone and the police had managed to catch him because the SIM card in the phone was registered with Go Mobile.

The woman, whose handbag was stolen, did not recognise the person who had taken it from her and so there was no other evidence linking Mr Harmsworth to that incident.

Magistrate Consuelo Scerri Herrera said that after she looked at his criminal record, it appeared as though he had not learnt from his past mistakes because he had two previous convictions for possession of and trafficking in drugs. The court felt that a six-month prison term suspended for four years was appropriate.