Insulting text message costs woman €5,000

A woman has been fined €5,000 for misuse of telecommunications equipment after she sent an offensive text message to lawyer Kevin Mompalao.

The case dates back to March this year when 31 year-old Francine Cini sent an angry text to the lawyer. The circumstances surrounding the sending of the message and its content did not emerge in the judgment, other than the fact that the lawyer had filed a criminal complaint against the woman.

The court said it was taking into consideration the intention of the legislator in introducing Act XXX of 2007, which amended the Electronic Communication (Regulation) Act to introduce the offence of misuse of electronic communications equipment into law.

That offence carries a maximum fine of €23,293.73.

After examining the provisions of the Electronic Comminication (Regulation) Act dealing with the offence in question, Magistrate Joseph Mifsud held that Cini had “without a doubt, intentionally misused her mobile phone apparatus” to “send a message with offensive words to the injured party.”

Cini was fined €5,000 and ordered to not approach the lawyer for one year, against a personal guarantee of €2,000.