A man was given an eight-month jail term suspended for two years after he admitted to stealing a van and crashing it into the car of the Labour Party president while drunk.

During his arraignment last week Adel Ismail Zukra, a Libyan national, pleaded guilty to stealing Kamal Abdel Gany's van, driving it under the influence of alcohol and causing damage to the van and the car of Stefan Zrinzo Azzopardi when he crashed on Thursday night in Naxxar.

He also admitted to driving without a licence or insurance cover.

Magistrate Doreen Clarke heard how Mr Gany had forgiven Mr Zukra and Dr Zrinzo Azzopardi declared that he had been paid for the damage caused.

On handing down judgment the magistrate noted that Mr Zukra had cooperated with police and had a clean criminal record. She handed down a suspended jail term and banned Mr Zukra from driving for a year.

Police Inspectors Ramon Mercieca and Stephen Gatt prosecuted.

Lawyer Patrick Valentino was defence counsel.

Sign up to our free newsletters

Get the best updates straight to your inbox:
Please select at least one mailing list.

You can unsubscribe at any time by clicking the link in the footer of our emails. We use Mailchimp as our marketing platform. By subscribing, you acknowledge that your information will be transferred to Mailchimp for processing.