A 46-year-old property man has been remanded in custody after being charged with stealing six bottles of expensive wine from a Farsons establishment.

Robert Farrugia, who works as a waiter at a Żurrieq establishment, pleaded not guilty to theft, handling stolen goods, relapsing and breaching bail conditions.

Lawyer Roberto Montalto pointed out that four out of the six stolen bottles of wine had been returned. The remaining two, which cost  some €260, had been consumed.

Dr Montalto argued that his client had a tumultuous past, having had a drug addiction problem for which he had sought treatment. Unfortunately, the lawyer continued, he seemed to have replaced that habit with alcoholism.

Magistrate Charmaine Galea heard how the accused frequented the shop on a regular basis and was generally an ideal client, until he found himself going through a bad patch.

His client needed help and a staff on which to lean on.

Dr Montalto therefore requested bail and suggested an interim probation order, pointing out that for a person to be accepted into a residential rehabilitation programme, he could not be serving a jail term.

Prosecuting officer Roderick Agius expressed his fear that if not remanded in custody, the accused would once again turn to the bottle, therefore increasing the chance of him committing another crime.

He suggested that, until arrangements could be made for him to enrol with a residential programme, he should be kept under preventative custody and a probation officer could be assigned to him.

The court turned down the request for bail and he was remanded in custody.
Outside the courtroom, the accused was seen comforting his elderly father, telling him that he needed to go through this in order to be able to kick the habit.

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.