Lawyer jailed for breaching bail terms

A Wardija lawyer found himself behind bars yesterday when the Criminal Court revoked his bail for breaching a travel restriction.

Dr Patrick Spiteri, 37, was taken in custody after Chief Justice Vincent De Gaetano ruled he had breached a bail condition when he failed to obtain court authorisation before travelling to the UK and Italy on business last week.

Dr Spiteri also lost a Lm5,000 bail bond set by the Magistrates' Court when it originally granted him bail on October 2. He is contesting two counts of forgery and one of fraud after Police Inspector Bernard Zarb charged him with the forgery of a contract and the signature of Notary John Debono.

Dr Spiteri is also charged with defrauding Emanuel Muscat.

Chief Justice De Gaetano heard the prosecution explain that Dr Spiteri was granted bail on October 2 and was bound against a personal guarantee of Lm5,000 not to leave the island unless authorised by a court, among other conditions.

Dr Spiteri filed an application before the Criminal Court last Monday (October 28) requesting leave to travel to Italy and London on business between Tuesday and Wednesday. The application was denied.

But Dr Spiteri left for Italy on Tuesday at 11.30 a.m. and returned to Malta early on Thursday morning from London Heathrow.

Later that day, the Attorney General filed an application for Dr Spiteri's rearrest on the grounds that he had breached a bail condition.

But Dr Spiteri pleaded that his was a genuine mistake. He had previously asked for authorisation to travel and been granted leave and had assumed that his latest request would not pose problems, that is, that he would be authorised to travel by the court.

The lawyer also claimed he had called the Criminal Court registry to make sure everything was in order before leaving the island and an unidentified man on the other side of the line had given him to understand that his application would probably be determined as previous applications had been (when he had been authorised to travel under certain conditions).

Dr Spiteri also told the court that when he learnt that he had been denied permission to travel (and this when he was already out of the country) he had returned to Malta because he realised he had made a blunder.

But Chief Justice De Gaetano said he could not accept Dr Spiteri's explanation. Court orders were to be scrupulously observed but Dr Spiteri took his bail conditions and court authorisation to travel very lightly, in contrast to the dedication, diligence and attention he showed when it came to his clients' interests and his companies.

He had in fact admitted that when the court had granted him leave to travel to Italy and the UK between October 23-27, on condition that his passport was restricted by the principal passport officer, he had not taken his passport to be so restricted and had gone abroad anyway.

Dr Spiteri claimed not to have seen a copy of the ruling, Chief Justice De Gaetano said, but the ruling had been served on him on October 22.

The chief justice noted Dr Spiteri's explanation that he had previously been to the passport office to check about restricting his passport and a member of staff had told him there was no need to stamp his passport but that he simply had to carry a copy of the court ruling with him.

The judge remarked he found it difficult to believe that Dr Spiteri had really thought he could go abroad with no restriction without being in breach of the court ruling.

Once a condition was set, it had to be observed. If the defendant did not abide by the conditions tied to the authorisation then there was no authorisation.

Chief Justice De Gaetano also noted that Dr Spiteri's lawyer, Dr Giannella Caruana Curran, had argued that the infringement of the bail condition was not of serious consequence but the judge disagreed.

He said the travel restriction had been imposed precisely because Dr Spiteri had "contacts, investments and ties abroad" and this made the possibility that he could stay outside the jurisdiction of the Maltese courts very real.

The case continues.

Attorney General Anthony Borg Barthet and counsel for the republic Donatella Frendo Dimech prosecuted.

Dr Giannella Caruana Curran appeared for the defendant.