Parents who genuinely cannot afford to pay child maintenance to their estranged partners should not be sent to prison as it was a breach of human rights, a man argued yesterday.

Stephen Spiteri said he found himself without a job and faced with constant police reports from his former wife, for his failure to pay.

He was sentenced twice to imprisonment but managed to avoid the term on appeal. Through his lawyers, David Camilleri and Joseph Gatt, Mr Spiteri filed a Constitutional application claiming that the law which allows detention of imprisonment for failing to pay child maintenance is in breach of human rights.

The case was filed against the Prime Minister and the Attorney General.

In the application, Mr Spiteri said he had separated from his wife in April 2009 and he agreed to pay her €400 monthly but in January 2010 he lost his Freeport job and opened an unfair dismissal case.

He won the case and was reinstated but only in April 2013 by which time he had accumulated some €6,000 in arrears on payments. Meanwhile, he had filed an application to have the payments to his wife stopped until he found a job. However, all he received was a reduction in the amount he had to pay.

Mr Spiteri said he would undoubtedly be sentenced to jail again for not paying the full amount of arrears as his former wife refused to have the amount split into payments.

He said the law breached his human rights as he could genuinely not afford to pay. He also requested that the court provide a remedy to the situation.