Fuel hawker gets suspended sentence, fine over 2015 Iklin shooting

A court has cleared fuel distributor Christopher Schembri of threatening a man with a gun over a bounced cheque, but handed him a suspended sentence after it found him guilty of carrying a loaded firearm in public without a licence and discharging it in an inhabited area.

Schembri had been arraigned in February last year, accused of firing a handgun during an argument outside a lawyer’s office in Iklin. 

Schembri, a fuel distributor from Sliema, had also denied accusations of having threatened and assaulted David Vella in the argument over bounced cheques and outstanding debts.

The shooting incident had occurred on Friday 6 February 2015 at around 9:00pm in Triq Anton Manuel Caruana, Iklin, not far from the office of lawyer Jonathan Abela. Prosecuting officer Carlos Cordina had told the court that an argument had erupted between Vella and Schembri over a dishonoured cheque.


In a sentence handed down yesterday, Magistrate Antonio Micallef Trigona noted that Schembri had received a number of cheques from Vella, which he had then used to pay a fuel importer, only for the cheques to be dishonoured when the fuel importers had tried to cash them.

 Abela had called Schembri to his office asking for an explanation, together with David Vella, whose mobile number had been written on the cheque. 
An argument subsequently erupted between Schembri and Vella, spilling out on to the driveway. News reports from the time say that police investigations pointed to Vella having shot at Schembri first, who then retaliated by firing two or three shots in the air from his pistol.


In fact, separate criminal proceedings were instituted against Vella, 37, who had pleaded not guilty to attempting to seriously injure Schembri, firing a weapon in a residential area, carrying an unlicensed weapon during the commission of a crime, breaching the peace, threatening and assaulting Schembri and breaching a court order handed down in June 2012. Vella was also charged with stealing cheques.


Inspector Carlos Cordina had told the court that Schembri had told police that his intention was to scare Vella – and not harm him. Schembri's defence lawyer David Gatt had also said his client had retaliated after being narrowly missed by bullets.

Three shots had been fired in the incident and the court expressed doubt as to whether all three of them had been fired by Schembri.

Noting that the accused had fired only shots into the air, Magistrate Antonio Micallef Trigona held that there had not been the “system of conduct” necessary to find Schembri guilty of threatening Vella. He did, however, find the man guilty of carrying an unlicensed firearm during the commission of a crime against the person.

For this crime, Schembri was fined €50 and handed a two year jail sentence, suspended for four.



Police Inspectors Carlos Cordina and Nicholas Vella prosecuted. Lawyer David Gatt was defence counsel.