Woman to be sentenced after changing plea and admitting to ramming Hamrun shop with Mercedes

A woman from Hamrun has been released on bail, pending sentencing, after reversing her previous denial and admitting to having intentionally crashed her Mercedes into a shop while intoxicated.

During Sonia Sammut’s arraignment on 10 April, the court had been told how the defendant had intentionally crashed a Mercedes, which she had been driving while drunk and without a licence or insurance cover,  into a confectionery's shutter.

It emerged that Sammut, an unemployed mother of four, had been trying to hit one of the shop’s employees, with whom she was involved in a dispute over rent and had traded insults.

It had also emerged that two employees had been working inside the shop at the time, counting the day’s takings.

CCTV footage showing the woman driving into the shopfront, before reversing out and ramming into it again, had also been collected by the police. 

When the case resumed before Magistrate Caroline Farrugia Frendo today, her lawyer Jose Herrera, informed the court that the defendant wished to admit to the charges. Herrera suggested a suspended sentence in his submissions on punishment.

The court released Sammut on bail, pending the completion of an expert’s report on the damages she caused and her eventual sentencing.

As part of her bail conditions, Sammut was ordered to sign a bail book 3 times a week and is prohibited from approaching the victims.

The court also imposed a protection order in favour of the victims.