A man who was found to have been outside his home late one evening last month in breach of a court curfew, has avoided punishment because of an error in the police charges.

The 38-year old had been granted bail in domestic violence proceedings.

When found driving on the Birkirkara Bypass at 11pm, he told police officers that he had been on his way to Mount Carmel Hospital where he resorted to for help with mental health issues.

But that meant that the man was in breach of a court-imposed curfew whereby he was ordered not to step outside between 7.30pm and 8am.

He was prosecuted for breaching the curfew, as well as failing to keep his appointment with the bail book and relapsing.

Besides risking a term jail, the accused was facing the prospects of forfeiting €8,000 by way of a personal guarantee for bail.

Yet when the case was heard, the accused’s lawyers pointed out an error in the charges.

The bail decree was erroneously put down as having been issued on September 27, when in reality bail had been granted on August 13.

When delivering judgment on Thursday, Magistrate Rachel Montebello observed that such an error concerned one of the material elements of the offence.

Moreover, the prosecution had only presented an informal copy of the August bail decree, without requesting to correct the “manifestly” mistaken date on the charges, in spite of being well aware of the timing of the bail decree.

Such an informal copy lacked the necessary probatory value, said the court, thereby concluding that the accused could not be found guilty of breaching a decree about which no evidence had been put forward.

Lawyers Franco Debono, Michael Sciriha, Amadeus Cachia and Matthew Xuereb were defence counsel.