Man caught driving at 110km/h has prison sentence overturned

The Court of Criminal Appeal has overturned a nine-month prison sentence handed to a 29-year-old man, ruling that the lower court failed to follow legal procedure when accepting his guilty plea.

Renald Aquilina had been convicted by the Court of Magistrates of negligent and dangerous driving that caused serious injuries to a woman then aged 50, in a road accident along Triq ix-Xatt, Sliema, on 16 September 2016. He was sentenced to nine months in prison and disqualified from driving for three years.

However, the Court of Criminal Appeal declared the entire judgment null and without effect, finding that Aquilina’s plea, which requires that any accused who admits guilt be solemnly warned of the legal consequences and granted time to reconsider.

The appeal, filed in July 2025, argued that the magistrate’s sentence was both invalid and disproportionate, and that the first court had ignored an earlier ruling by the same appellate court in March 2024 directing it merely to re-issue the sentence without altering the penalty.

Aquilina also claimed that the lower court failed to give sufficient weight to mitigating factors, including the malfunctioning of the pedestrian lights and the victim’s sudden crossing, and that he had expressed remorse and compensated the victim through an out-of-court settlement.

The court noted that the sitting transcript from 6 May 2025 showed Aquilina was given brief time to consult his lawyer, but was not formally cautioned as required. Without that solemn warning, the court held, the admission could not stand.

Evidence before the first court showed that Aquilina had been driving a Peugeot at 110 km/h in a residential zone, striking Cauchi as she crossed on a zebra crossing. The impact was so severe that she was thrown into the air and landed on the opposite side of the road. She suffered serious and permanent injuries that profoundly changed her life.

Her husband testified that his wife had lost temporary memory, could no longer speak or write properly, and required continuous speech and motor therapy. She eventually had to step down from her role as a bank manager and was reassigned to a lower position.

An eyewitness told the court she saw the woman “literally fly” after being hit and that other cars had already stopped, with Aquilina’s vehicle speeding through the bus lane.

Given these findings, the Court of Criminal Appeal annulled the 14 July 2025 judgment and ordered that Aquilina be restored to the same procedural position he held before his guilty plea, meaning that the criminal proceedings will now resume before the Court of Magistrates from the stage preceding the 6 May 2025 sitting.

Aquilina was represented by lawyers Franco Debono and Charles Mercieca.

Judge Consuelo Scerri Herrera presided over the case.