Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/700383
2 MATTHEW AGIUS TWO men were charged in court yesterday over unrelated incidents of domestic violence. The two 48-year-old men, from Swieqi and Pembroke, appeared in separate arraignments before Mag- istrate Audrey Demicoli. In the first case, Inspector Mat- thew Spagnol charged a man from Swieqi with slightly injuring his wife, attacking her, threatening to kill her and causing her to fear that he would be violent towards her during an argument on 3 July at around 6:30 am. Inspector Spagnol told the court that the St Julian's police station had received a report of a probable domestic assault. The police were warned that the man kept weapons at his home, but a search of his prop- erty did not uncover any. Defence lawyers Dean Hili and Veronique Dalli entered a not guilty plea on the accused's behalf and re- quested bail. The prosecution did not object to the request, but point- ed out that the accused lived with his wife. Dalli informed the court that the man could reside with his father in Valletta pending the out- come of court proceedings. Bail was granted against a deposit of €500 and a personal guarantee of €3,000. The accused was also ordered to sign a bail book twice a week. Inspector Spagnol also arraigned the second husband, who lives in Pembroke, and charged him with attacking his wife and threatening to kill her. In addition, the man was charged with committing an offence punishable by imprisonment during the operative period of a suspended sentence. In this second case, Veronique Dalli appeared as parte civile for the accused's wife and explained that the couple, who are in separation proceedings, had an argument that boiled over into violence on Friday. Furniture was broken and the ac- cused had threatened to break her client's neck, the lawyer said. The accused's defence counsel, lawyers Michael and Lucio Sciriha, entered a plea of not guilty and re- quested bail. Inspector Spagnol did not object to bail, as long as the accused did not stay at the matrimonial home and on condition that a protection order be issued for the wife and 17-year old daughter. The defence suggested that the ac- cused could live in his caravan or in his garage and be prohibited from approaching the St Julians or Pem- broke areas. Initially sceptical at this sugges- tion, the magistrate was eventually A reporter for the newspaper l-oriz- zont and one-time DJ Charlot Lau- tier has been handed a suspended sentence and fined after he was con- victed of benefit fraud. Magistrate Doreen Clarke heard prosecuting police inspector Jona- than Ferris accuse Lautier of fraudu- lently receiving €4,869.51 in unem- ployment benefits whilst gainfully employed, and of running an unli- censed tour operator business. Magistrate Clarke found him guilty as charged on the benefit fraud, handing down a 13-month prison sentence, suspended for two years. Lautier was also given six months to pay the €4,869.51 he owed to the Department of Social Security. Inspector Ferris explained that in 2012, whilst registered as unemployed, the accused had been the registered owner of ww.djcharlofuntravel.com and the contact telephone number it gave was Lautier's personal mobile. Investigations revealed that he would also organise several Virtù Ferries tours and a company repre- sentative had exhibited a list of the tours he had accompanied during the January 2011 to September 2012 period. Representatives of the Malta Tour- ism Authority and the Employment and Training Corporation had pro- vided the court with documentation showing that DJ Charlo Fun Travel was licensed in the name of Alexan- der Lautier, listing the accused as an operator. He also had been registered as a part-time employee with One Pro- ductions Ltd between January and March 2013. The Social Security Department had confirmed that Lautier had re- ceived unemployment benefits be- tween March 2011 and June 2012, totalling €4,869.51. When he was called in for ques- tioning, Lautier had released a state- ment in which he explained that he had failed to inform the authori- ties of his tour-operating activities, whilst receiving unemployment benefits, because he "considered it to be a hobby, not work." The court dismissed the second charge, that of operating an un- licensed tourism business, as the charges were time-barred. maltatoday, WEDNESDAY, 6 JULY 2016 News Deejay, now journalist, lands suspended jail term for benefit fraud Charlot Lautier received over €4,800 in unemployment benefits between March 2011 and June 2012 Tarxien teenager brought fake handgun to a fight over argument between girlfriends MATTHEW AGIUS A "duel" intended to settle a Fa- cebook argument between two women, prompted an incident between their boyfriends involv- ing an imitation firearm, a court heard yesterday. Appearing before Magistrate Audrey Demicoli, Inspector Christabelle Chetcuti charged 19-year-old Simon Desira from Tarxien with carrying an imita- tion firearm during the commis- sion of a crime, causing Desmond Borg and his girlfriend to fear that he would be violent towards them, threatening the couple with arms improper and insulting and threatening them. Inspector Chetcuti explained that there had been an argument on Facebook between two wom- en, the girlfriends of the men in- volved. The victim, Desmond Borg had then texted the accused, challeng- ing him to a fight. The men arranged to meet at a garden in Sta Lucija, but when Borg and his girlfriend arrived, Desira had produced the imita- tion firearm and pointed it to- wards the couple. Although the weapon did not turn up in a search at the ac- cused's home, he had later handed it over to the police, the inspector added. Defence lawyer Jason Azzopardi, describing the incident as "a clas- sic case of a person defending his honour and that of his girlfriend," claimed that Borg had invited the accused to come out and fight sev- eral times on social media. Borg had a criminal record and his threats "were not to be ig- nored," explained the lawyer. "The accused had gone to try and understand why this stranger had invited him to fight. Where he went wrong was that he had failed to inform the police of the threats," Azzopardi said, adding that Desira was scared that either his girlfriend or himself would come to harm. There was agreement on the fact that Desira was threatened and invited to fight, said the defence. "There are people who, out of a sense of honour and personal pride, would not allow others to threaten their girlfriend. It is nor- mal to be protective of one's girl- friend… these are realities." That the plastic firearm was clearly a fake, could be seen from "miles away," the defence argued. The prosecution disputed this, but added that the accused had a valid firearms licence and a police search of his house had found his shotgun to be properly stored and in accordance with the legal re- quirements. The accused pleaded guilty to the charges. The court gave Desira a sen- tence of six months' imprison- ment suspended for 18 months and disqualified him from keep- ing a weapon for six months. It also ordered the confiscation of the imitation firearm and prohib- ited him from approaching Borg for 12 months against a personal guarantee of €500. Two men charged with domestic violence in separate arraignments Cocaine dealer guilty of trafficking, gets 14 months' imprisonment MATTHEW AGIUS A Somali man who admitted to at- tempting to traffic cocaine in Pace- ville, just days after being released from prison, has been jailed for 14 months. 30-year-old Abdisalan Mahamed Afrah was arrested on 26 June after police on duty in Paceville noted him behaving suspiciously. Magis- trate Consuelo Scerri Herrera had heard Inspector Frank Anthony Tabone testify that a subsequent search of Afrah revealed that the man had been carrying three sa- chets of a substance which was sus- pected to be cocaine. Afrah had told officers that he had been planning to sell the three 0.5g sachets for €50 each. Afrah, who is unemployed and lives in Hal Far, ad- mitted to trafficking cocaine, pos- session of cocaine in circumstances denoting that he intended to traffic the drug, aggravated by the fact that he was less than 100m away from a place frequented by youths. Charges relating to the possession of cocaine without the authorisation of the health authorities and relapsing brought the tally of charges to five. The accused had just been re- leased from prison when he was arrested. In 2014, Afrah had been sentenced to three years' imprison- ment for stealing a handbag. Mag- istrate Scerri Herrera observed that the accused had been convicted of several thefts over a two-year period and that his stint in prison had ap- parently not taught him anything. In awarding punishment, the court took into consideration the defence's submissions, his early admission and that the amount of drugs he had planned to traffic was minuscule. Afrah was condemned to 14 months imprisonment and fined €300. The court ordered the destruction of the drugs.