€5000 fine, suspended sentence for assaulting officers over noisy Bluetooth speaker

A man has been handed an 18 month suspended sentence after he admitted to assaulting four police officers who confiscated a Bluetooth speaker that was playing loud music.

Swieqi resident Adem Katricioglu, 28, from Turkey pleaded guilty to the charges brought against him. 

Police inspector Matthew Grech told magistrate Rachel Montebello how a police patrol at St Georges Bay had come across a group of people playing music loudly on a Bluetooth speaker at around 1am on Friday. 

The group did not obey the police instructions to turn the music off, so the police confiscated the device.  

Katricioglu objected to this and attacked the police officers as they were walking away, injuring a sergeant and three police constables  in the ensuing struggle. 

Magistrate Rachel Montebello handed down an 18 month sentence, suspended for 3 years and fined him €5,000. 

Legal aid lawyer Cynthia Tommassuolo was defence counsel.