Court sentence reduced on appeal

A man had his prison sentence reduced from 18 months in jail to 12 months after the Court of Criminal Appeal found him not guilty of relapsing.

Stephen Zahra was originally found guilty of stealing objects and cash from a shop in Żabbar on April 10, 1997. He was also found guilty of causing damage to the shop and relapsing.

However, the court, presided over by Mr Justice David Scicluna, said that the first court could have never found him guilty of relapsing because the only proof of a court judgment handed down in 1990 was that for a traffic contravention for which he was conditionally discharged for two years.

Mr Justice Scicluna said that according to law, a conditional discharge or a probation order is not a declaration of guilt except for those crimes listed in a specific article of the Laws of Malta. Traffic contraventions did not feature in this list.

The court therefore reduced the original punishment to 12 months in jail.

Lawyer Roberto Montalto appeared for Mr Zahra.