Man caught with nearly 100g of heroin avoids jail after turning his life around
Court applies drug court provisions, handing three-year probation sentence for 2015 trafficking case
A man caught with almost 100 grams of heroin a decade ago was handed a three-year probation order after a court concluded he was a drug addict at the time of the offence but has since successfully rehabilitated.
Magistrate Caroline Farrugia Frendo was able to make use of a law that transforms the court into a drug court if an accused was a drug addict when they committed a minor crime.
In its ruling, the court also considered that Charlot Farrugia had cooperated with police and helped them catch a drug trafficker.
Farrugia, now 49, was caught red-handed buying heroin in Marsa in April 2015.
Farrugia met another driver in a car near the Yellow Pages building who handed him a Lonsdale box. Police found 93.67 grams of heroin and €350 in cash inside it.
However, police did not find tools that are often associated with drug dealing either in the accused’s car or his house.
“There were no weighing scales or small bags, and the drugs were found divided in two bags – one of 44.46 grams and another of 49.21 grams,” the court was told.
After hearing the testimony of professionals from Sedqa, magistrate Farrugia Frendo ruled that the heroin was acquired to be sold off pointing out that, while Farrugia was a drug addict at the time, he was addicted to cocaine, not heroin.
The court took into account that Farrugia had made a real effort to turn his life around. In fact, between 2015 and 2019, dozens of drug tests that Farrugia took came out clean.
Farrugia was handed a three-year probation sentence on Thursday. He was also ordered to pay for court expenses.
Lawyers Franco Debono, Marion Camilleri, Adreana Zammit appeared for Farrugia.