Man charged with killing two in road accident jailed for one year over separate case

A man accused of involuntary homicide after allegedly killing two men in a fatal collision with their motorcycle earlier this year has been sentenced to prison for driving an unlicensed car in connection with a second, unconnected case.

In a judgment handed down earlier on Monday, Magistrate Yana Micallef Stafrace sentenced 42-year-old Karl Vella Petroni, from Manikata to imprisonment for one year and disqualified him from driving for one year after finding him guilty of driving a vehicle with an expired road license in March 2019.

The court specified that the driving ban is to begin as soon as he is released from prison after serving his sentence.

Vella Petroni had originally also been charged with driving under the influence of alcohol, driving over the legal alcohol limit, damaging a roundabout, and recidivism.

However, he was acquitted of the first charge after the court observed that the number plate of the vehicle he had been driving was not clearly specified on the breathalyser test exhibited by the prosecution.

He was also cleared of causing damage to the roundabout because, when called to the witness stand, the general manager of the Environmental Landscapes Consortium Ltd had been unable to confirm the date of the incident.

As the prosecution failed to bring evidence of Vella Petroni’s previous conviction, he was also acquitted of the recidivism charge.