The father of 18-year-old Yana Xerri who died in a traffic accident two years ago, was “surprised” to hear the drunk driver who caused her death escaped with a fine and temporary loss of his driving licence.

“We need a justice system that teaches people a lesson – that you can’t just go to Paceville and get drunk and then get behind the wheel…

“I was surprised when I heard the judgment. But, on the other hand, there’s nothing I can do,” Charles Xerri told The Times.

On Thursday Clint Xuereb, 24, who was Ms Xerri’s boyfriend, was fined €6,600 and banned from driving for three years when he was found guilty of causing her death through dangerous driving.

The court found that Mr Xuereb was drunk and speeding.

The accident happened on the Coast Road on November 27, 2010, at about 4.30am after the couple had spent a night out in Paceville.

Mr Xuereb was driving towards St Paul’s Bay when he lost control of the car, which the court found was travelling at excessive speed.

He slammed on the brakes, hit a low wall and mowed down a signpost before the vehicle flew through the air on to the rocks below the road and flipped over.

Neither of them was wearing a seat belt and they were thrown out of the car. Mr Xuereb escaped with cuts but Ms Xerri died on the spot.

“I don’t know what to think. Sometimes, when I’m angry, I think he deserved jail. But then I say: what will I get out of it?” Ms Xerri’s 59-year-old father said.

“I won’t get her back... but, as it is, it’s as though the court is telling him to do it again. After three years he can do it again.”

At the time of the accident he was in the UK, attending a training course to become a security officer.

His daughter was meant to go with him but had eventually changed her plans.

“The last time I saw her was at the airport when she hugged me goodbye,” he recalled.

“The accident devastated us… Since then one of my daughters has refused to go out and she dreams about Yana almost every night,” he said, explaining that Yana was one of four daughters.

“She was loved by everyone,” he said, adding he had raised her alone since her mother died at the age of 37, when Yana was only six.