A cleaner was jailed for 20 months and ordered to pay €5,000 after she was found guilty of stealing gold and jewellery from a house that she had been paid to clean.

Graziella Debono, 47, of Paola, had been arrested in November 2020 and charged with aggravated theft and recidivism.

Debono had admitted to police to having stolen the jewellery from a residence she would clean, on her last day providing her services to the victim. 

Although the woman had confessed during her interrogation, she had then denied the charges in court and was released on bail, only to be sent to jail for six months in January 2021 for breaching both the conditions of her release on those charges, as well as conditions relating to another case.

Magistrate Claire Stafrace Zammit noted that the best evidence in this case was the statement that the woman had released to the police, after having been given all her legal rights. In that statement, she had admitted to stealing the items and later, selling them to a jeweller for €1,135. 

A court-appointed jeweller had subsequently valued the stolen items at €5,325.

The court also noted that she had failed to pay back the value of the stolen items, despite her being afforded several opportunities to do so. Proceedings had been dragged out in order to give Debono time to pay up, said the court, “but the defendant did not try to start paying part of the sum due and instead tried to use every possible excuse to come across as the victim herself.” 

This, together with her previous convictions for very similar crimes, led the court to conclude that she offered no peace of mind that she would ever compensate the victim unless she was handed a prison sentence.