A man was given probation in lieu of an effective jail term after a court of appeal deemed it would be “unjust” to remand him in custody and risk undoing all his efforts at getting his life back on track.

Reginald Bugeja, now 46, had been facing the prospects of 18 months behind bars over a string of thefts committed 19 years ago when the accused, then in the grip of drugs, had fallen into criminal circles.

The man had been convicted before a Magistrates’ Court in 2014 over four separate thefts in March 2000 involving items from a Birkirkara hotel, seven television sets, a car stereo and tools from a Santa Venera garage.

An appeal was filed by the accused on grounds of the quantum of punishment in view of the lapse of time since the thefts were committed, during which time the accused had undergone a complete transformation.

The Court of Criminal Appeal, presided over by Madam Justice Edwina Grima, observed that the appellant’s first brush with the law dated back to when he was 16, after the loss of a parent at the age of 10.

The young man started taking drugs and eventually become embroiled in criminal circles, his last brush with the law dating back to 2006.

However, pending the appeal proceedings, the man had undergone a complete transformation, kicking his addiction and placing his life back on track.

Although there was no doubt that the punishment meted out by the first court fell within legal parameters, it would be “unjust” to send the accused behind bars, stated the court, after closely examining the reports put forward by probation officers and noting that the man had indeed “embarked upon the right path”.

In light of such evidence, “it would be more worthwhile for the accused and society at large for the appellant to be closely monitored outside the confines of prison so as to ensure that he had fully quit the drug habit,” the court declared, placing the appellant under a three-year probation order which would afford him the necessary psychological support.

Lawyer Edward Gatt was defence counsel.

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