Probation after thefts committed with her son

According to Newsbook, the case concerned five thefts on 17 April, 23 June, 2 July, 5 July and 13 July 2020. Police had been investigating reports from elderly people who said a woman, accompanied by a boy, knocked on their doors to ask for money. The victims realised they had been robbed after the pair left.

Al Omar, from Mosta, was also charged with failing to take the necessary care of her child, two counts linked to crimes committed during the operative term of a conditional discharge, and recidivism.

The sentence turned on what the court accepted had changed since those offences. In her judgment, magistrate Astrid May Grima acknowledged what Newsbook described as significant progress by the defendant since the thefts were carried out. The court noted that Al Omar had overcome drug addiction, secured employment and was living a stable life, and said it should not disturb the “serenity” she had worked hard to achieve.

So the outcome was probation rather than another prison term. The magistrate also imposed a three-year treatment order so that Al Omar could receive any psychological or other assistance she might need. She was further ordered to enter into a personal guarantee of €2,000 and not to approach the victims for a year.

That does not leave the earlier pattern out of view. Newsbook reports that after being granted bail following her arraignment over the 2020 thefts, Al Omar ended up in court over a similar theft in 2021, again involving her son and targeting the home of three elderly siblings. She was jailed for two years and three months over that case later that year.

This judgment, though, was about the older thefts and about whether the court should answer them only with punishment or also with the defendant’s current circumstances. Grima’s answer was probation, treatment and a financial guarantee rather than custody.