Teen out on bail for threatening man with gun breaches conditions

A 19-year-old man from Gudja on bail for allegedly threatening a man with a gun, has been jailed and had a €1,000 bail deposit confiscated over repeated breaches of his bail conditions.

Zven Azzopardi was arraigned before Magistrate Kevan Azzopardi on Wednesday, after police officers at the scene of a traffic accident near the Ħamrun police station early yesterday morning, found him to be a passenger in one of the vehicles involved.

The officers realised that he was in breach of a court-imposed curfew and arrested Azzopardi on the spot.

Police Inspectors Joseph Xerri and Kurt Farrugia charged Azzopardi with breaching two sets of bail conditions, informing the court that the defendant had also repeatedly failed to sign his bail book. He had previously been fined €500 last October for breaching the other set of bail conditions, he said.

The defendant pleaded guilty.

In view of his admission, the court found him guilty as charged and revoked both bail decrees, ordering Azzopardi’s rearrest, as well as the confiscation of the €1,000 deposit securing one of his bail decrees.

He was sentenced to imprisonment for four months, after the court weighed his early guilty plea against his failure to capitalise on the multiple opportunities he had been given in view of the presumption of innocence.

“It is evident that the defendant is not capable of keeping to his bail conditions,” said the court.

Defence lawyer Marion Camilleri declared that no appeal would be filed.