A young man who was made to pay dearly for a hare-brained joyride undertaken 12 years ago in his youth, had his punishment reduced by a court of appeal.

Luke Farrugia was an 18-year old with a clean criminal record when one day in 2005, at around 4.30am, he took a BMW on a joyride through the streets of Birkirkara and ended up crashing into two other vehicles

Criminal action was instituted against the teenager for having taken the car without the consent of its owner, without the necessary Police licence and insurance cover, for having driven in a reckless and dangerous manner and for having caused damage to third party property.

In July 2016, a Magistrates’ Court declared him guilty and imposed a 3-month jail term suspended for two years, together with a €1,000 fine. The accused was also ordered to pay almost €8,000 in damages to the BMW owner and two other drivers whose vehicles were damaged when the joyrider crashed the car.

The Court of Appeal, presided over by Madam Justice Edwina Grima, upholding the appellant’s arguments, declared that the punishment delivered by the First Court had “certainly been excessive.”

The Magistrates’ Court had disregarded the fact that the accused had been a minor with a clean criminal record when the joyride incident took place.

Moreover, not only had the First Court failed to take into consideration the fact that proceedings had dragged on for 11 years, but in deciding upon punishment it had taken note of other convictions recorded on the accused’s criminal record after the joyride incident.

The Court observed that since the incident had not resulted in any one being harmed, the applicable punishment was either a maximum jail term of 3 months or a fine or a lesser penalty.

As far as third party damages were concerned, the Court observed that in criminal proceedings, payment for such damages could only be exacted when they had been caused voluntarily. In this case, resulting damages had been of an involuntary nature.

Such involuntary damages could only be claimed through civil arbitration.

The Court revoked the €1,000 fine as well as the order to pay third party damages. The 3-month jail term suspended for two years was to be operative from the date of final judgment.

Lawyer David Gatt was defence counsel.