Lawyer charged with threatening employer, theft

A Polish lawyer has been remanded in custody after he was charged with threatening his erstwhile employers and stealing a beverage from a shop.

42-year-old Bartosz Marcin Adruszaniec pleaded not guilty to charges of theft, blackmail, extortion and causing persons to fear that violence would be used against them. He was also charged with making threats-both orally and in writing and misuse of electronic communications equipment.

The accused, who said he lived in Xemxija, is a lawyer by profession and had been engaged with a local law firm on an employment contract which also provided his living arrangements. His employers terminated Adruszaniec’s contract for reasons which did not emerge in the sitting and the man is understood to be contesting this decision. 

During the course of this dispute, the accused is alleged to have swamped a number of the firm’s employees and company directors with emails and WhatsApp messages, some of which were interpreted as being threatening. 

The man was later reported stealing a bottled beverage from a stationer in St. Paul’s Bay and arrested following a scuffle with the owner of a private residence that he had tried to enter.

Through lawyer Graziella Tanti, appearing as legal aid, Adruszaniec pleaded not guilty. Bail was requested, but Police Inspector Clayton Camilleri told the court that the man’s address was found to be an unoccupied, abandoned building without electricity or running water. “It is uninhabitable,” said the inspector, adding that there was a real possibility of the man absconding.

The defence's argument that the man could still be located at the address he had given was dismissed and the court denied bail.

A protection order was requested and subsequently granted, protecting the people whom the man had been contacting.

Lawyer Stefano Filletti appeared for the parte civile.