Imprisonment a first in judicial history

The case of a judge being tried, convicted and imprisoned is a first in Maltese judicial history, police historian Eddie Attard said.

"The cases dealing with public officers accepting bribes and ending up being charged with committing crimes they were in duty bound to prevent are very few," he said.

The only case that springs to mind is a case in 1965, when two policemen had been tried by jury for accepting a £5 bribe between them after they had booked a driver for breaching a court condition of driving while his licence was suspended, Mr Attard said. A casino croupier had had his driving licence suspended for a week but six hours before the court order elapsed he was seen at the wheel of a car. The police booked him and later an officer told him they would not file charges if he assisted them in winning at the casino. The croupier did not accede to the offer but accepted to give them money. He had dropped a fiver in the letter box of one of the officers and later filed a report against them.

Following investigations, he was given a pardon in order to be able to testify against them. The two policemen had been sentenced to 11 months imprisonment each and interdicted for life, Mr Attard recalled. The penalties contemplated in the law dealing with corruption of public officials virtually remained unchanged for over 100 years and a public officer could face up to three years imprisonment for such crimes. It was only after the case involving Dr Vella and the former Chief Justice that in 2004 the penalty for such crimes was increased to eight years. The minimum punishment was also raised from six months to a year.

There have been a few cases of public officers falling from grace over the past few years. A former Police Commissioner, lawyer Lawrence Pullicino, was convicted of complicity in the infliction of grievous bodily harm, followed by death, of Nardu Debono in 1980 and was imprisoned for 15 years. He was also disbarred.

Lawyer Patrick Spiteri was recently disbarred after being found guilty of forgery.

Notary Sandro Schembri Adami has just been interdicted after being found guilty of fraud and was given suspended jail terms.

According to the Civil Code, a conviction for any crime liable to imprisonment of over one year will automatically result in the "perpetual disability" to practise the profession of advocate.