Man jailed for seven years for misappropriation, relapsing

A man, described by a magistrate as “unwilling to learn from the various opportunities afforded him by the court,” was yesterday handed a seven-and-a-half year prison sentence after one instance of misappropriation rendered three other suspended sentences effective.

Francis Caruana, 58, from St. Paul’s Bay, was charged with misappropriation, committing a crime during the operative period of no less than three suspended sentences, breaching a probation order and relapsing by Police Inspector Rennie Stivala.

Magistrate Neville Camilleri had heard Krismar Vassallo testify as to how Caruana had approached him, David Darmanin and Anthony McKay while they had been waiting in a queue to submit some registration documents at the ADT offices, offering to help them avoid having to wait by submitting the documents on their behalf.

They had accepted this offer, handing Camilleri the documents and €2,800, which were to be paid to the ADT for the registration of a vehicle. However Camilleri did not submit the documents, nor did he pay the ADT.

After a great deal of chasing the accused, he finally returned the documents to them - minus the cash. Vassallo told the accused to give him a Ford Semax car as security until he could repay him and informed the court that he was still in possession of the Ford, as the debt had not been repaid.

The trio explained that they had to resort to these proceedings to recover the amount misappropriated.

Called in for questioning by the police, the accused had released a statement in which he confirmed that McKay and Darmanin had handed him €2800 to register a vehicle but he could not do so as there were missing documents, so he decided to use the money for something else while he was waiting for their mechanic to deliver the remaining documents to him.

When they approached him asking for their money back, he asked them for more time and gave them the Ford, together with its signed logbook by way of security.

He had promised the police that he would repay the three men by the 15 August, 2012. It was not repaid, however.

On the strength of his own admission in his statement to the police, the court found him guilty of misappropriation. As a corollary to this, his suspended sentences were also rendered operative and the charge of recidivism was therefore also proven.

He was acquitted of breaching the probation order however, as the required evidence was not exhibited in court by the prosecution.