A freelance caterer was yesterday jailed for nine months after he admitted to being in possession of 10 sachets containing cannabis near the Plaza shopping complex on Sunday.

In giving his particulars, Kenneth Zammit, 30, of Ta’ Xbiex told the court that he used to be a full-time chef but now worked doing freelance catering where he cooked for groups of around 15 people.

During his arraignment yesterday, he admitted to trafficking in cannabis and being in possession of the drug in circumstances which denote it was not for his exclusive use.

He also admitted to committing the crimes within 100 metres of a place frequented by minors and stealing a skate boarding helmet from the shop Free Soul in Sliema.

During submissions on punishment, his lawyers Clifton Grima and Adrian Borg said their client had a clean police record, had cooperated with the police and wanted to kick his drug habit once and for all.

Police Inspectors Jesmond Borg and Jason Sultana said that by law he had to be jailed and that is what they were pushing for.

Magistrate Francesco Depasquale told Mr Zammit that his hands were tied by the law when it came to jailing him and that he had full faith that he would manage to overcome his drug problem, wishing him well for the future.

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.