A wooden bench in St Julian's which landed two Frenchmen with a court-imposed fine for vandalism was already broken and had been lying in a state of disrepair for months, Times of Malta has learnt.
The vertical wooden planks had been snapped into two and the iron legs bent at an angle after a driver had accidentally reversed into it months ago.
“It’s quite unfair to make those two young men pay €370 as the bench had been broken for ages,” Retailer Edward Maggi said.
“They did us a favour by removing the broken planks – that bench was a true eyesore, bang in the middle of such a popular tourist area. We had been complaining about it to the local council for ages but no action had been taken.”
On Wednesday, student Jean Fontaine, 20, and his apprentice plumber friend Bernard Havez, also 20, admitted to drunkenly tearing apart the bench to repair a bed and have a barbecue.
They were arrested at about 5am on Wednesday while walking down the road carrying the wooden planks, shortly after the police received a report about the vandalised bench in Dragonara Road, St Julian’s, adjacent to La Maltija restaurant.
The two men were conditionally discharged for a year and ordered to pay €370 between them.
The Frenchmen had declared that they could not afford a lawyer, so legal aid Anthony Cutajar was appointed by Magistrate Gabriella Vella.
When contacted, Dr Cutajar said that, while he was aware that the bench had been damaged, he was unaware of the full extent of the damage inflicted to it prior to the Frenchmen’s case.
“Theirs was an unfortunate situation which we sometimes encounter. They’re foreigners, and they were drunk when the offence occurred. They wanted to get the whole case out of the way as soon as possible, or else it would have dragged on for ages.
“It would have been a different matter had they been Maltese and living here permanently.”