Jail term reduced after lengthy proceedings delay judgement for six years

Paul Gauci Borda, 33 of Gzira, had his jail term reduced to 10 months, after Mr Justice Lawrence Quintano considered the long period of time that had passed between the date of the offence and when judgement was delivered.

In 2012, Paul Gauci Borda, 33 of Gzira was convicted of having used cheques which were not his and forged signatures of account holders in 2006. Over a number of months, Borda had defrauded Wands Ltd of €975.54 (Lm418.80), Master Wine Ltd of €745.33 (Lm319.97), Smart Supermarket of €909.39 (Lm390.40), Super Master Ltd of €602.94 (Lm258.84) and Paul Scerri of €419.29 (Lm180). The Court of Magistrates jailed Borda for a year but he appealed judgement.

The appellant argued that the first court had misinterpreted the evidence as the prosecution had not proven his guilt beyond reasonable doubt because one of the witnesses had not recognised the accused. Furthermore the incident happened almost six years prior to the conviction.

The Court of Appeal noted that judgement cannot be based on a single witness. “Other witnesses recognised the accused, and it is highly improbable that the same man is coincidentally seen twice on a site where cheques with forged signatures are being used”, the judge said.

Moreover, Mr Justice Lawrence Quintano noted that the appellant failed to attend a number of sittings of his own appeal and in one instanc the court had to issue an arrest warrant in his regard. The Court explained that the convicted had been previously found guilty of theft, falsification of documents and drug trafficking. Back in 2001, Borda had failed to change his ways when a court placed him under probation.

“The Court of Magistrates handed the convicted a year’s imprisonment -  a month shy of the minimum term applicable at law. The appellant's behaviour does not justify a change in punishment”, Mr Justice Lawrence Quintano said. However considering the length of time that had elapsed from the date of the incident, the judge changed the term of imprisonment from a year to 10 months.