A cleaner’s confession that he had given an electronic access key to a man intending to rob office premises led to the thief’s convinction.

Mark Lawrence Rizzo, now 35, was found guilty of stealing electronic office equipment 10 years ago and was placed under probation after the court was informed that the accused had since addressed his personal problems and found a steady job.

He had entered a company office at Gżira on three consecutive afternoons back in September 2009, gaining access by means of a plastic electronic key used by the cleaners, complete with its alarm code, which had gone missing some two monhs previously.

A report about the missing items had reached the Sliema district police on September 23 with the list comprising a 47” TV, six computers, eight monitors, a laptop and a docking station, worth a total of some €7,500.

There had been no signs of any break in and investigators zoomed in on two people working for a cleaning company, who had been on duty at the time that the key had disappeared.

One of these confessed to having passed on the key, together with the alarm code, to the accused in exchange for “some money”. The cleaner was prosecuted and sentenced.

A third party, who confessed to having bought a TV set from the accused for €900, was also convicted.

Although the accused denied his involvement in the thefts, the court concluded that there was no reason for it to dismiss the testimony of the cleaner which had been “unequivocal”, supplying details as to where, when and how he had passed on the key and code to the accused.

In the light of all this, the court, presided over by magistrate Josette Demicoli, placed the accused under an 18-month probation period.

Inspector Saviour Baldacchino prosecuted. Lawyers Franco Debono and Marion Camilleri were defence counsel.