Brothers guilty of attacking warden

Two brothers were yesterday condemned to pay Lm250 for threatening and attacking a local warden and an authorised officer at the wardens' offices in Victoria last year.

Fredrick Aguis, 31, and his brother Frankie, 27, both of Luqa, had been charged with assaulting and injuring warden Paul Attard and officer Ina Zammit on August 26, 2004.

The two men, together with Fredrick Agius' wife Caroline, 33, were also charged with breaching the peace and uttering obscene words in public.

After evaluating the evidence Magistrate Consuelo Scerri Herrera found all three guilty of charges brought against them. The two men were fined Lm250 and the woman was fined Lm25.

Magistrate Scerri Herrera declared that there was no contestation of the fact that the accused had gone to the wardens' office in Victoria after they had been issued a parking ticket.

The court was convinced that the accused had gone to the wardens' office to try to justify themselves with the warden in an attempt to have him withdraw the ticket. When they were asked to contest the parking ticket at the local tribunal, they were not satisfied.

Magistrate Scerri Herrera noted that these charges were committed against a public officer while on official duty and since these crimes were directed against the administration of justice, they were very serious crimes.

The court said it wanted to condemn the behaviour of the accused to pass on a message to society that the local wardens' duties are to defend the interests of society and therefore they should be protected by the judicial system.

It went on to explain that the accused were not condemned to imprisonment because they were first-time offenders, the incident in question was an isolated one and the injuries inflicted were minimal.

The prosecution was led by Police Inspector Maurice Curmi while the accused were assisted by Dr Chris Said.