A woman bit two police officers and scratched a third in the face when she was about to be fined for parking her car on a double yellow line yesterday morning, a court heard.

Traffic policeman Anthony Axiaq stopped to give the car a ticket. He had noticed the car parked illegally in front of the Conimex shop in Żabbar. As he was filling in the ticket, Antoinette Rizzo stormed out of the shop and started shouting. She became violent and PC Axiaq called for back-up but by that time she had already allegedly taken a swipe at him, scratching his face.

WPC Diane Galea and PC Mario Muscat arrived on the scene to help out but they too allegedly ended up being injured after Ms Rizzo bit WPC Galea on her hand and PC Muscat on his arm.

Police Inspector Fabian Fleri told the court that even when she was talking to him she said that "if the same officer gives her another ticket her brakes might not work the next time she meets him". The inspector said he understood that comment to mean she would run the officer over.

He referred to the 48 convictions on her criminal record, including for attacking police officers, dating back 30 years.

Magistrate Consuelo Scerri Herrera granted bail against a deposit of €1,300 and personal guarantee of €1,000.

Lawyer Shazoo Ghaznavi was defence counsel.

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.