Two men on bail charged with stealing vehicles

Two men pleaded not guilty to stealing two vehicles reported missing before they were tracked down by police.

Ryan Briffa, a 32-year-old Marsa resident and Sean Zammit,30 from Birkirkara, both unemployed, were escorted to court on Friday after being arrested for the alleged thefts.

Prosecuting inspector Jeffrey Scicluna explained that two vehicles, a Citroen and a Ford model, were reported stolen on the night of August 5 from San Ġwann and Rabat. Police later received information that the vehicles were spotted at the car park outside the Addolorata cemetery at Paola. But when investigators went there, the cars were nowhere to be seen.

Working on CCTV footage and suspicion that the vehicles could have been sold at scrapyards, police focused on a vehicle with Maltese number plates found in possession of Zammit.

Police proceeded with the arrests and both vehicles were retrieved. 

The men were charged with aggravated theft and handling stolen property.

Briffa was separately charged with having allegedly taken possession of a stolen Mitsubishi with a licence registered on a Skoda Favorit model. He was further charged with a number of other offences in breach of driving and traffic...