Suspended jail term

A 21-year-old man has been given a six-month suspended jail term after a magistrate heard how he bought ecstasy pills from a stranger with the intention to share them with friends.

Magistrate Lawrence Quintano heard that Keith Bugeja released a statement to the police in which he explained that on June 6, 2004, he was with his friends in Hal Far when a man went up to them and offered to sell them drugs.

Together the group of friends collected Lm35 to buy seven pills. Mr Bugeja, who was 18 at the time, followed the man while his friends waited for him. He gave the money to the man and was given a pill for free. On his way back to his friends, he was caught by the police who found the eight pills in his possession.

On handing down judgment the magistrate noted that Mr Bugeja had a clean criminal record. However, he could not ignore the fact that one of the tactics of drug dealers was to pass on drugs to a group of people through one of them.

He gave Mr Bugeja a six-month jail term suspended for two years and fined him Lm500.

Police Inspector Pierre Grech prosecuted.