A man who allegedly punched a bank manager after the bank withdrew €11.65 from his account for no apparent reason, is pleading for clemency because it has taken 17 years for his case to be concluded.

Through his lawyer, Stephen Bonsfield, 46, from Qawra, asked Magistrate Audrey Demicoli to acquit him of the charges brought against him because he had waited far too long for justice to be done.

Lawyer Emy Bezzina said his client was still waiting for a judgment on a “mistake” he had committed on September 2, 1995 when Mr Bonsfield had gone to the Gżira branch of the Mid-Med Bank to ask for an explanation on why €11.65 (Lm5) had been withdrawn by the bank from his account.

Mr Bonsfield allegedly punched bank manager Raymond Brockdorff in the face, chipping his front tooth in the process.

He was arraigned before Madam Justice Jacqueline Padovani, then a magistrate, who in November 2005 jailed him for 18 months.

Ten days later, Mr Bonsfield filed an appeal which retired Judge Joseph Galea Debono upheld, saying the presiding magistrate had sentenced him to jail without actually declaring him guilty – a basic requirement for a judgment in the Criminal Court, resulting in a procedural mistake.

This judgment was therefore declared null and sent back to the Magistrates’ Court for a fresh one to be handed down according to law. But the case got delayed further in 2006 when Madam Justice Padovani abstained from presiding over the case since she had delivered the first judgment. So the case was sent back to the courts registrar to be assigned to a different magistrate.

The case was assigned to Magistrate Demicoli who yesterday heard Dr Bezzina argue that the case had been going on for too long for his client who has since married, had children and had a steady job.

Describing the matter as serious, Dr Bezzina quoted the famous saying that justice delayed is justice denied.

Magistrate Demicoli will hand down judgment on January 25.