Father and sons have jail terms slashed by 52 months on appeal

A father and two sons convicted of an attempted robbery at a lotto booth in Marsa have had their jail terms slashed by a total of 52 months on appeal.

Keith Joseph Mallia, 49, his son Mario, 22, and another son who was 16 at the time of the incident four years ago, had been arrested in the middle of the night in February 2016. 

It all began when a police patrol spotted a Kia Shuma with blacked-out number plates and a passenger wearing a balaclava on Racecourse Street, Marsa.  

The driver of the Kia had sped off but was later blocked at the Marsa bypass. 

It turned out that both the father, who was at the wheel of the getaway vehicle, and his two sons were in breach of court-imposed curfews.

Inside the Kia, police found a large sledgehammer, a crowbar, a 24-inch pair of scissors, a chrome pipe, three pairs of gloves, two balaclavas, a baseball bat, as well as a portable radio tuned in to the Rapid Intervention Unit’s frequency.

A lotto booth nearby showed signs of an attempted break-in on its outer metal gate. 

CCTV footage from the scene showed two hooded men approach the front door and then rotate the camera away from the entrance.

The men seen in the footage were armed with a large pair of scissors and wearing clothes similar to those worn by the two brothers.

All three members of the Mallia family were arraigned and found guilty of attempted theft.

The father was separately convicted of driving with an expired licence and without insurance cover, as well as breaching three suspended sentences, four different sets of bail conditions and also relapsing.

Mario Mallia was also convicted of breaching probation and bail, while his brother was found to have breached two bail decrees and a suspended sentence, together with a supervision order.

The father landed a 30-month jail term, Mario got 20 months, while his younger brother was jailed for 13 months.

All three filed an appeal. 

The Court of Criminal Appeal, presided over by Madam Justice Consuelo Scerri Herrera, in a 79-page judgment, observed that the evidence put forward left no doubt as to the preparatory acts committed by the trio.

Although no fingerprints, DNA or call profile evidence had been produced to link the accused to the crime, the rest of the circumstantial evidence left no doubt in that regard.

Yet the crux of the issue lay in determining what had caused the trio to abandon their plans halfway.

Was it that they had sensed approaching police patrol? Did they intend to continue with what they had started? 

That question was not answered by the prosecution, said the court, observing further that none of the three had been caught red-handed, trying to get inside.

The lingering doubt worked in favour of the accused, said the court, adding that it was to be assumed that the trio had voluntarily refrained from carrying out the theft, not because they were intercepted by third parties.

The prosecution had failed to prove the attempted robbery accusation beyond reasonable doubt. Nor had it charged the men with carrying the break-in tools and causing voluntary damage to third party property.

Consequently, Mario Mallia was cleared of all charges, while his brother had his 13-month jail term reduced to 4 months, even considering his problematic upbringing and previous brushes with the law.

The father had his 30-month jail term to 7 months and was handed a 12-month driving ban, together with forfeiture of his bail bonds.

Lawyers Franco Debono and Amadeus Cachia were defence counsel.