A drug trafficker who managed to kick his long-standing drug habit has been spared a 10-month prison sentence after an Appeals Court considered the great strides he had made in his life. 

Madam Justice Consuelo Scerri Herrera noted that while his drug case had been ongoing for the past 10 years, Noel Buhagiar had not only not committed another crime but had successfully attended a drug rehabilitation programme and managed to kick the habit and get his life back on the right track. 

Noting this improvement, she converted the 10-month prison sentence into a suspended one, warning him of the repercussions if he had to commit another crime in the next two years. 

Buhagiar, from Żebbuġ, had been found guilty of heroin trafficking and possession after the police had arrested him on the strength of the testimony of a man who named him as his drug supplier.

The arrest had taken place in January 2010 when he was stopped by Drug Squad police, who during a search of his car, found four sachets of brown substance which later resulted to be heroin. Buhagiar had told police that he and the other man who reported him usually abused and shared drugs together.

However, the court did not believe this version and gave more weight to the version of the other man who described Buhagiar as his supplier. 

The court heard how Buhagiar was a heavy user and had gone to Caritas in November 2010 to get help to kick the habit. Caritas continued to follow him and his urine samples, even recently, showed that he remained drug-free. 

Lawyers Franco Debono and Amadeus Cachia were defence counsel.