An appeals court has turned down the request of Fabio Psaila to reduce a six-month jail term which was imposed when he breached bail conditions by failing to  sign the bail book while on the run for three weeks.

Mr Justice Michael Mallia said that bail conditions were there to be respected and the jail term handed down to Mr Psaila was within legal parameters.

Mr Psaila has several pending court cases. He is pleading not guilty to the attempted hold-up of the HSBC Qormi headquarters in 2010 and the attempted murder of the two police constables.

He was also charged with the attempted theft from jeweller Michael Mizzi and his son Silvio in Attard.

In December 2010 the Magistrates' Court had given him a six-month jail term for breaching bail when he failed to sign regularly at the Ħamrun police station. After that police could not track him down for several weeks until he handed himself in.

In his appeal he argued that the jail term was too harsh and did not reflect what he did. However, the judge disagreed and turned down the appeal.