Officers attending Police Day celebrations in Valletta yesterday ended up giving a live demonstration of their job when they apprehended a 17-year-old girl who nicked a wallet from an elderly woman's handbag.

Sobbing her way through the entire sitting, Bulgarian Todorka Borisova - who turns 18 in a fortnight - admitted stealing from the woman, who was browsing through a Valletta store, and attempted theft.

Prosecuting officer Priscilla Caruana Lee told the court salesgirls at the clothes store saw the accused with her hand inside a woman's handbag on CCTV monitors. She did not steal anything at that point and the woman, who was accompanied by her partner, moved on.

As the employees frantically discussed their next move, they spotted the accused slip her hand into an elderly woman's handbag and make off with a wallet, which was found to contain €175.

The employees gave chase and the teenager flung the wallet into the street. Officers celebrating Police Day in the area arrested the girl.

Magistrate Audrey Demicoli heard how the accused told the police that she had come to Malta to meet a person she had met through Skype but had failed to give the person's identity.

She also claimed that she would be leaving Malta today but did not produce flight tickets to confirm her assertion.

In view of her lack of cooperation, Insp. Caruana Lee appealed for an effective prison sentence.

Legal aid lawyer Simon Micallef Stafrace argued in favour of a suspended sentence, underlining the accused's early guilty plea, her age and the fact that the crime amounted to simple theft.

The accused was given a six month jail term suspended for two years.