The Justice Minister yesterday issued a thinly veiled warning to the courts to keep career criminals “where they belong”, after it emerged that the robber shot in a foiled armed hold-up last Friday was on bail.

Justice Minister Carm Mifsud Bonnici said a clear message should be sent to “everyone” that “we are dealing with delinquency and criminality at its worst”.

“Crime has to be tackled by everyone, because it is imperative that the perpetrators of such serious offences are held where they belong,” he said, adding that the government would, if necessary, introduce legislation to further limit the possibility of bail being granted in certain cases.

Dr Mifsud Bonnici was speaking in the wake of a botched hold-up at the home of a jewellery shop owner in Attard last Friday involving an aggressor who only last June allegedly took part in an armed robbery at the HSBC operations centre in Qormi.

Back at work just hours after being attacked outside his home by three hooded aggressors, jeweller Michael Mizzi yesterday told The Sunday Times how his 25-year-old son saved his life.

The incident happened on Friday night at around 8.30 p.m., when Mr Mizzi and his son Silvio were returning to their home in Old Railway Road, Attard, after a long day at work.

Michael Mizzi was carrying a large bag containing cash and other belongings he did not wish to leave at The Gold Market, his Attard shop, currently promoting gold sales.

A hooded man emerged from the darkness brandishing a crowbar and told the 52-year-old jeweller to hand over his black bag.

Mr Mizzi refused to obey, prompting the thief to strike him with the metal bar, leaving a head wound and an ugly gash on his left cheek.

Meanwhile, two other hooded men pounced on his son from another direction, brandishing a sawn-off shotgun.

“Somehow, my son snatched the gun from them and when they realised he took it, they ran off,” the father, who did not wish to be photographed, said. His son then fired around five shots, aiming at the hooded man who attacked his father.

“When I heard the shots I thought they had killed my son,” Mr Mizzi said. “I was lying on the ground in pain at the time, and a tree was obstructing my line of vision.”

But he then realised his son managed to hit the remaining assailant in the leg, incapacitating him.

Mr Mizzi said his shop and factory had been broken into a number of times in the past but he never expected such a direct attack.

“God knows how long they have been tracking me,” he said.

He pointed out that he did not normally arrive home at precisely the same time as his son, so the assailants probably expected him to be alone.

“But life goes on,” he said, as he sat at his desk, welcoming a queue of customers. “If you stay home going over things in your head, you’ll go mad.”

The injured villain, who was taken to hospital escorted by a policeman, turned out to be Darren Debono, 33, who was granted bail at the end of October after being charged with attempting to kill police officers in the foiled HSBC heist.

Mr Debono and Vincent Muscat, the other man accused of being involved in the attempted bank heist, who was also granted bail, together face 18 charges.

Mr Debono is said to have fired tens of rounds at policemen during a shootout which ensued midway through the HSBC heist. He had managed to flee the scene but was intercepted when he presented himself at a clinic to be treated for a bullet lodged in his jaw.

He is a man with a history of court appearances and charges, and yet was granted bail by Magistrate Edwina Grima.

Mr Mizzi said: “How can you grant bail to someone like that?”

Dr Mifsud Bonnici said the police were there to fight crime and protect citizens, even at their own risk, and therefore should be “supported” by all concerned.

“I sincerely hope this case serves as an eye-opener for everyone as to the kind of serious threat such delinquency presents to our society.”

Police are still searching for the two other aggressors who fled the scene in a white van, which was later found on fire some distance away.