A car dealer was on Wednesday charged with assaulting a client who was angry at him for selling a defective car part.
Bernard Attard, 32, from Żebbuġ, was charged with assaulting a man who turned up outside his house allegedly armed with pepper spray.
Before Magistrate Charmaine Galea, Attard pleaded not guilty to slightly injuring the victim, causing over €250 worth of damage to his property, breaching the peace and breaching the bail conditions over a separate case as well the conditions of a suspended sentence.
Inspector John Sammut told the court that the victim had gone outside Attard’s residence with pepper spray demanding to speak to him over a defective car part he had sold him.
The inspector said that after spraying pepper spray at Attard’s father, who had opened the front door, Attard emerged with a metal rod with which he assaulted the alleged victim and damaged his car.
The court was told that the police would also charge the alleged victim over the same incident.
Attard pleaded not guilty. His defence lawyer requested bail but the prosecution objected, saying he was currently on bail over a different case and had opted to confront the alleged victim with a metal rod rather than calling the police to intervene.
Magistrate Galea upheld the request for bail against a €2,000 deposit and a €4,000 personal guarantee. She also ordered him to sign the bail book twice a week and issued a protection order in favour of the alleged victim.
Lawyers José Herrera, Matthew Xuereb and Alexander Scerri Herrera were defence counsel.
Attard, who is also separately facing money laundering charges, was mentioned in court last week after a laptop exhibited as evidence in the case against him went missing from court.
This emerged during the compilation of evidence against two women – Jessica Sciberras Azzopardi and Maria Attard – who stand charged with aiding and abetting money laundering.
The crucial piece of evidence was exhibited in January 2022 by the Financial Crimes Investigations Department in the case against Attard, who stands charged with misappropriating €1.2 million, fraud and money laundering.