A man sentenced to four months detention for not paying the excessive full amount of alimony while in jail for the same crime has complained that he had entered a vicious circle he will never get out of unless the courts were more understanding about particular circumstances.
The man, who asked to be named only with his initials, MS, is appealing the jail term for failing to pay the full amount of alimony during a period when he was in jail after the court ruled that the fact he could not afford it was not acceptable as an excuse.
The 54-year-old told Times of Malta he was a self-employed real estate agent focusing on letting and started facing financial difficulties during the COVID-19 pandemic when the real estate sector suffered a major blow.
MS said he had to sell his belongings, including his car, due to his financial constraints. He filed requests in court asking for a reduction in the amounts due in alimony but these were not accepted by the court, keeping the amount to €700 a month for both his children.
He was jailed between September and December 2022 because he was not managing to pay the full amount to his estranged wife. While in jail, his ex-wife continued to file police reports about his lack of payment and, in February last year, he was charged with failing to pay alimony during the three months he spent at Corradino Correctional Facility.
Earlier this month, Magistrate Lara Lanfranco sentenced him to four months in prison after finding him guilty of the offence.
In her decision, the magistrate said “the accused’s failure to afford maintenance is not a valid excuse”.
“The accused can secure gainful employment and, indeed, there is nothing to prohibit him from doing so and, thus, his explanation cannot be considered as an impossibility to fulfil his obligation,” she ruled.
MS explained that he had been married for 14 years and had two sons. Everything was fine for the first 18 months since his separation but then everything changed when his ex-wife changed her lawyer, making claims in court that he was “a monster” who was making their children suffer psychological abuse.
“These were the first signs of parental alienation. I was paying regularly the €500 monthly maintenance as agreed on the separation contract but, then, she filed an application in court claiming that I was not paying my share of the extra curriculum expenses as well as medical expenses and education, asking the court to increase the amount of maintenance to €800. The court partially upheld the request, setting the alimony at €700 per month inclusive of all the extra expenses. I continued to pay but, then, COVID hit. I had to give up my car and I could barely afford basic necessities such as food. I was still working like a dog but letting contracts were simply not happening,” he said.
MS said the court repeatedly refused his requests for a reduction in the alimony amount due to such a drastic change in circumstances, even ignoring the financial statements he presented to back up his claim. He said the family court even refused to allow him to appeal the decision, placing him in limbo and at imminent risk of imprisonment.
In the meantime, he continued, his estranged wife reported him for seven months for failing to pay the full amount.
In March 2022, the court sentenced him for seven months but, on appeal, the jail term was reduced to seven weeks, after the judge considered it to have been a continuous offence.
“In October (2022), I was imprisoned and was released on Christmas Day with just €5.20 to my name. I started to apply for jobs through JobsPlus but I was not even called to one interview, so I went back to the real estate job. I was also doing odd jobs but I was not making enough money to pay the full amount and to make ends meet. I was paying €250 a month until I received another police summons to appear in court again. This is a never-ending vicious circle,” MS said.
His lawyer, Conrad Borg Manché, said that a constitutional case had been filed since the increase in the amount of alimony was a “purely arbitrary decision” made by the court, constituting an unlawful order. It is also being claimed that his rights to a fair trial were infringed when his request for leave for appeal was turned down. In both cases, the decrees were void of any possible motivation or explanation, the lawyer said.
The man is part of NGO Happy Parenting Malta, which is organising a protest in Valletta today to raise awareness and call for urgent amendments in the law and improvements to the family court procedures to address parental alienation.
The NGO has proposed that there should be a special agency/board made up of experts in the subject and deal with the cases before the family goes to court.
It is also proposing that access and alimony should be decriminalised.