Tourists missed their flight back home after their passport was stolen along with their backpacks from a hotel lock-up, a court heard on Monday.

The alleged thief was denied bail after pleading not guilty to the theft of personal possessions.

Fabian Sciriha, a 32-year old from Marsa, was arrested and marched to court to answer to charges concerning the theft of three bags from the hotel secure lock-up on Sunday at around 3pm.

Prosecuting officer Inspector Priscilla Caruana Lee explained how police had received a report from a third party which placed investigators on the trail of the suspect.

The theft had allegedly been discovered when some four guests who had deposited their luggage inside the hotel's secure lock-up, found that three bags had gone missing when they returned to retrieve them.

Inside the bags were various personal items, including passports, which meant their owners were unable to catch their flights back home, scheduled for Sunday evening.

CCTV footage from the hotel indicated that the luggage had been stolen.

It was only later when a third party, allegedly involved in an argument with the accused in Floriana, had reported that the man had foreign passports in his possession, that the police focused their suspicions on the accused.

The man pleaded not guilty to the thefts and sat in the dock while two of his alleged victims, a Scottish couple in Malta on a week's holiday, recalled how their back pack had gone missing from the hotel storeroom.

Inside the bag was a Kindle reader, three mobile phone chargers, some £100 in cash, a man’s coat and other items. The woman said that inside the bag there had been a wallet of sentimental value.

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The couple’s British passports had also disappeared together with the rest, with the woman pointing out how they had spent Monday morning trying to obtain fresh documents.

“It cost us quite a lot of money,” the woman said, before stepping off the witness stand.

The court, presided over by magistrate Aaron Bugeja, heard how only few of the bag's contents had been returned to their owners. The main ones were still missing.

A request for bail was objected to in view of civilian witnesses who were still to testify as well as the accused’s "voluminous and varied criminal record".

Legal aid lawyer Josette Sultana rebutted that her client not only had strong ties in Malta but could also be bound by strict bail conditions, although he lacked sufficient means to fork out a bail deposit.

In view of the man’s perceived inability to guarantee bail conditions, the court turned down the request for bail at this stage of the proceedings.