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maltatoday, WEDNESDAY, 26 FEBRUARY 2014 News 6 Construction company ordered to refund €28,000 deposit CHRIS MANGION THE First Hall of The Civil courts today ordered Tas-Sellum Develop- ment Company Limited to reimburse Brands International Limited more than €28,000 paid as deposit against the purchase of an apartment at Tas- Sellum, Mellieha. Back on 8 June 2005, a company under the name of Mecca Invest- ments Limited signed a promise of sale with Tas-Sellum Development Co Ltd. The agreement related to the purchase of Apartment 23, in Block 9, at Tas-Sellum, Mellieha for €121,000 of which €28,185.42 were paid as de- posit. Two years later, in 2007, Mecca Investments Ltd changed its name to Brands International Ltd. As time passed, the defendants never called upon the other company to conclude the sale and the prom- ise of sale lapsed. Concerned about its monies, Brands International Ltd sent an official letter in December 2012, asking to be reimbursed the deposit paid. When the defendants ignored the request, Brands Interna- tional Ltd filed a civil suit demanding its monies with interest. Mr Justice Mark Chetcuti explained that since the defendants did not up- hold their right to call on the buyers to effect the purchase, then they had no right to hold on to any deposit paid. The First Hall of the Civil Court ordered Tas-Sellum Development Co. Ltd to reimburse Brands Interna- tional Limited the sum of €28,185.42, together with interest, dating from 8 June 2005 until date of payment. Man jailed for 40 months on 10 charges JEFFREY Busuttil, 34, of Mqabba, was jailed for 40 months, fined €700 and banned from having a firearms license for five years after leaving the prisons when the court convicted him of ten charges including forgery of money, theft, and drug possession. On 10 November 2010, the accused was behind the wheel of a Vauxhall Astra when police from the Mobile Squad signalled to him to stop for a spot check. Instead, Busuttil tried to flee but lost control of the vehicle and crashed into a parapet. Another pas- senger managed to get out of the car and run away. He was never appre- hended or identified. Meanwhile the police saw Busuttil drop something over the wall of the parapet. The officers checked what the item was and found an IAG 7.65mm semi- automatic handgun with six bullets loaded in the magazine. Inside the vehicle the police found grippers, side cutter, Swiss knives, torches, a crash helmet, a pair of gloves, a packet of A4 paper with Euro notes printed on them and bundles of Euro notes. A piece of foil containing brown powder was also found in Busuttil's pockets. Investigations revealed the handgun was part of a weapons cache reported stolen from the Gun and Rod Shop in San Gwann in May 2010. The value of the weapon was €165. Court experts confirmed the Eurso note to be coun- terfeit and the brown powder identi- fied as heroin. The Court decreed that the prosecu- tion did not prove that Busuttil had himself stolen the firearm and acquit- ted him of theft. However the accused was found guilty of handling stolen property, keeping an unlicensed fire- arm, negligent driving, being in pos- session of theft paraphernalia, drug possession, counterfeiting money and handling forged currency, disobeying police orders and relapsing. Taking into consideration the ac- cused's past convictions related to theft and his extensive criminal record, Magistrate Doreen Clarke jailed Busuttil for 40 months and fined him €700. He had his driving license suspended for 6 months, banned from having any type of firearms license for five years and ordered to pay €2139.58 in court expenses. Inspectors Ian Abdilla and Carlos Cordina prosecuted. Court orders repayment of €4 million in debts CHRIS MANGION BOLIN Construction Limited was ordered by the Civil Courts to pay HSBC Bank Malta plc the sum of over €4 million relating to out- standing debts the company had with the bank. In yesterday's sitting, Legal Procu- rator Catherine Fenech confirmed to the court that through a deed signed on 20 December 1995, Bolin Construction Limited was loaned the sum of €1,855,039 (Lm700,000) by the Bank. However the loan was not repaid. On 13 November last year, HSBC demanded payment of €3,249,093 in outstanding repayments and €1,394,053 incurred in interest over the unpaid amount up to March last year. The facts of the case prove that representatives of Bolin Construc- tion Limited were summoned to appear in court, but the defendants did not turn up when the case was called. The company's two directors are Joseph Portelli and Ivan Vella. Mr Justice Anthony Ellul upheld the request filed by pay HSBC Bank Malta plc and ordered Bolin Con- struction Limited to pay the sum of €4,643,146, relating to loan repay- ments and interest. Victim forgives aggressor, says they are now friends Youth acquitted on appeal DARREN Psaila, 35 of Zabbar, was handed a two-year suspended sen- tence after pleading guilty to injur- ing another man, with whom he has since become friends. The court heard that the accused had been constantly at loggerheads with a certain Edgar Apap, with both men filing reports against each other over several arguments. On 8 August, 2011 a verbal argu- ment between the two men escalated when Psaila smashed the windscreen of Apap's vehicle. He also damaged the vehicle by kicking at its side pan- els. Almost a month later, on 31 Octo- ber, Apap left the Zabbar Social Club at around 7pm. Walking down the street he heard footsteps following him and saw the accused running to- wards him with a brown object in his hand. Psaila hit the victim with the object and lacerated his arm. The ac- cused told his victim that had it not been for children that were present in the street at the same time, he would have continued beating him. Psaila told the court that he had been provoked into attacking the vic- tim. "Apap had made gestures at me, so I picked a piece of pipe to defend myself just in case it gets nasty," the accused said, arguing that he did not trust the other man. When Apap left the club he called out to the accused, referring to him as 'a chicken'. "I went at him and hit him with the pipe, telling him to leave me in peace. Later I handed the pipe over to the police," Psaila said. Psaila pleaded guilty to grievously injuring Apap and damaging his ve- hicle, but argued against the charge of having the intent to cause grievous bodily harm to his victim. During the procedures, Apap in- formed the court that he had for- given Psaila and dropped his charges against him. "We've sorted out differ- ences and now we even go out drink- ing together," he said. Magistrate Doreen Clarke acquitted Psaila of having the intent to cause grievous bodily harm and consider- ing the dynamics of the incident, de- creed that an effective jail term was not the ideal punishment. Psaila was handed a year's jail term suspended for two years. He was also ordered to pay €640.93 in court expenses within the next six months. Inspectors Chris Pullicino and Syl- vana Briffa prosecuted. ROBERT Busuttil was acquit- ted on appeal of drug possession charges, after evidence failed to convince the court that the drug was strictly in his possession. In April of last year, a Court of Magistrate handed Busuttil a 12- month conditional discharge after finding him guilty of drug posses- sion. The case goes back to 20 De- cember 2007, when a passer-by in- formed the AFM soldier on duty at the American Embassy in Attard that three male youths were acting suspiciously in the female public toilet. When the soldier entered the toilet, the surprised youths flushed all they had. However, the soldier was in time to save a sachet from being destroyed. The sachet was handed over to police inves- tigators and tests revealed it con- tained cannabis resin. The three youths were charged with simple possession of cannabis resin. Dr Michael Sciriha, on behalf of Busuttil, appealed the judgement, arguing he was denied legal assist- ance at investigation stage, when he admitted his guilt. While this does not invalidate his guilty plea, case law quoted by the prosecution was interpreted incorrectly by the court. Moreover, evidence showed the accused and another person were apprehended while in a pub- lic toilet for women, where a piece of cannabis resin was found. Such evidence does not prove beyond reasonable doubt that the drug was in Busuttil's posses- sion. "Maltese law does not cater for collective guilt, hence a guilty judgement based on this evidence is unsafe and unsatisfactory," Dr Sciriha said. Taking into consideration that the appellant was a minor when the offence happened, Mr Justice Michael Mallia said the police should have treated him as a vul- nerable person during their inves- tigations. "Given the lack of legal assistance, his guilty plea in his statement cannot be considered in isolation, but need to be backed by evidence beyond reasonable doubt," the court said. YOUR FIRST CLICK OF THE DAY www.maltatoday.com.mt