No bail for ‘parker’ accused of breaching court order

A man who was fined and banned from entering a Valletta car park ,earlier this month, after being found guilty of impersonating a parker and harassing drivers to pay him to park their cars there, has been remanded in custody after he appeared in court for allegedly breaching a court order prohibiting him from being in designated areas of Valletta.

Just twenty days ago, Edward Farrugia, 37, from Valletta had been slapped with the maximum fine of €500 and barred from the area for six months after the court found him guilty of charging motorists to park in public spaces. The court had warned him that he would face a prison sentence if he persisted in his actions.

Farrugia, who is not a licensed parker and does not hold a Transport Malta tag, had been posing as a parker and hounding drivers into paying him money to leave their vehicles in the Hastings area. The accused is well known to Transport Malta and had reportedly been ordered to leave the area a number of times, but would always return to badger more drivers, ignoring at least two court orders in the process. 

Inspector Jeffrey Scicluna arraigned the man before Magistrate Anthony Vella this afternoon, accusing him of breaching a court order, which was part of a sentence handed to him on 4 January.

Inspector Scicluna told the magistrate this morning that Farrugia had been banned from the Hastings area and a number of specific streets by a previous court.

However yesterday, a policeman on duty was approached by a member of the public and informed that the man was in the area again. His presence there placed him in breach of the court order, said the inspector, pointing out that this was not his first, but his second or third conviction.

The court asked the accused what he pleaded. “I feel I’m not guilty,” he replied, with his defence lawyer Joe Ellis asking for bail.

The prosecution objected to the man’s temporary release from arrest, arguing that he had failed to give police a confirmed address when he was being questioned and that he had already breached a court order.

“Everyone in Valletta knows him,” argued Ellis, adding that the accused wasn’t a flight risk, nor could he suborn any witnesses as they are all police officers.

“He is being charged with acting as a parker and failing to obey court orders, the charges aren’t so grave as to merit his continued custody,” submitted the lawyer.

The court, however denied bail and ordered the case to be assigned to the magistrate dealing with Valletta - Magistrate Joe Mifsud, who had originally allowed Farrugia to be released from arrest and who has a reputation for taking a hard line against repeat offenders.