Man cleared of dangerous driving on appeal

Josef Borg had been jailed for a year in October 2012, after he was found guilty of dangerous driving, driving with a suspended licence and speeding.

The Court of Appeal has overturned a man’s dangerous driving conviction after it held that it had not been proven that the police had cautioned the man before taking his statement.

Josef Borg had been jailed for a year in October 2012, after he was found guilty of dangerous driving, driving with a suspended licence and speeding.

Borg had also been pronounced guilty of disobeying legitimate police orders, violating conditions of a suspended sentence and relapsing. The court had jailed Borg for one year and suspended his driver’s licence for a year.

Borg appealed the judgment.  In the appeal before Judge David Scicluna, Borg’s lawyer, Kathleen Grima, argued that her client had been convicted on the strength of hearsay evidence.

She noted that the conviction depended on an affidavit by a police sergeant, who had quoted what another police officer had told him. The original officer had not been summoned to testify against Borg.

In addition, she had argued that it was not clear that police had cautioned Borg that his statement could be used as evidence against him, before hearing his version of events.

Judge David Scicluna upheld the appellant’s arguments ruling that the conviction could not stand as the prosecution had failed to prove that the accused had been cautioned according to law.