Unlicensed Gozo driver’s harsh three-month prison sentence overturned on appeal

An 18-year old unlicensed driver has seen his three-month prison sentence reduced to a conditional discharge on appeal, after it was held that the original punishment “greatly overshot” the norm in such cases.

In July 2015, police had stopped Russlan Cilia on Triq il-Imgarr in Xemxija. Unable to produce a driving licence because he had none, the 18-year old had told the officers that he had left it at home and was asked to present it at the police station within 48 hours.

In its sentence of 1 March 2016, the Court of Magistrates (Gozo) had only found him guilty of the first charge, jailing him for three months and disqualifying him from holding a licence for eight days.

Cilia filed an appeal, arguing that the punishment was excessive and disproportionate and pointing out that the punishment was the maximum applicable for that offence. He drew attention to the fact that he was a first-time offender, less than 20 years of age. If sent to prison, Cilia argued, he would end up being led into delinquency by the other prisoners who had been incarcerated for far more serious offences.

He explained, although without producing any evidence, that at the time of his arrest, he had been a learner driver and had been practising his driving under the watchful eye of his father. He had passed his driving test shortly after, the court heard.

He asked the court to reduce the punishment to something “more fitting and just, in the particular circumstances of the case.”

In a judgement reforming the sentence, Chief Justice Silvio Camilleri pointed out that the Court of Appeal would normally not delve into the first court’s reasoning in choosing whatever punishment it inflicted as long as it was within legal parameters.

“Unfortunately, in truth, the Court of First Instance gave no reason for its punishment,” Camilleri noted.

Taking nothing away from the gravity of the crime, which the court said “manifested contempt towards the law and a tendency to delinquency, as well as indifference to the safety of pedestrians,” the imposition of the maximum term of imprisonment to an 18-year old first time offender, far exceeded the punishment usually inflicted in such cases.

The court held that in the particular circumstances of the case, a conditional discharge would be more effective than the fixed fine contemplated in the Traffic Regulation Ordinance and replaced the 3-month jail term with a 1 year conditional discharge. Cilia was warned of the consequences of committing another offence during that time.