Court upholds burglary sentence, cites previous convictions

The court of appeals upheld the immediate three-year imprisonment of a man for burglary of a house and theft of items worth €18,520, an announcement on Friday said. The decision was taken on October 27 with the court dismissing the appellant’s claim that the sentence was excessive. The court said the sentence reflected the offences, taking into consideration other offences the appellant had pleaded guilty to, including domestic violence. The appellant had admitted to the burglary of a house in Limassol in May 2025. He had been handed concurrent sentences of three years for burglary and two years for theft. In his appeal, the man said the court of first instance had not taken into account the fact that he was facing personal and psychological problems at the time of the offences, including taking drugs. He also said he was homeless, out of work and had no family to support him. However, the court of appeals said the court of first instance had indeed taken all this into account, as well as the fact that he had abandoned the closed treatment programme he had been referred to. The man had also been convicted for burglary and theft in the past and had ignored a restraining order forbidding him to approach or contact his wife. “There is no reason at all to interfere with the sentence passed,” the court of appeals said.