A former Maltacom director, who had been facing the prospect of a two and a half year jail term over a drug possession case dating back 11 years, has had his punishment reduced on appeal.

Richard Attard, 65, had landed the jail term – together with a €5,000 fine – after being found guilty by a Magistrates’ Court following the discovery of some 166 grams of cocaine and 400 ecstasy pills at his home and inside his car.

The accused had filed an appeal claiming that the punishment was too ‘harsh’, although the Attorney General had countered that the penalty fell well within the ‘legal parameters.’

In the appeal application it was argued that the first court, despite being aware of the accused’s health problems, his clean criminal record and the conclusions laid out in a social inquiry report, had not considered such factors when meting out punishment.

The Court of Criminal Appeal, presided over by Mr Justice Antonio Mizzi, noted that the first court appeared to have ignored the fact that the accused had assisted the police “in a concrete manner”.

In his sworn statement, Mr Attard had referred to a multitude of individuals and opened up avenues which could possibly enable investigators to break up drug trafficking operations, the court observed, adding that this fact alone merited a reduction of punishment by two grades.

It was also observed that this case dated back to 2007, to a time when the accused had resorted to drugs owing to “a plethora of personal problems”.

The man’s condition had since completely changed, the court observed, pointing out that the accused was now leading “a regular” life, although constantly troubled by the thought of his pending appeal.

In the light of all this, Mr Justice Mizzi concluded that the appellant deserved to be given “a window of opportunity”, thereby upholding the appeal and while confirming the conviction, reduced the punishment to a 6-month jail term and a fine of €2,000, besides the bill of court expert expenses amounting to some €1,541.

Lawyers Joseph Giglio and Jean Paul Sammut were defence counsel.