Man who defrauded eCabs and four others gets suspended sentence
Court says repayment of victims showed prospects of rehabilitation but did not justify going below the minimum punishment
A 38-year-old man who admitted defrauding eCabs and four individuals has been handed a four-year prison term suspended for four years after fully reimbursing his victims.
Mark Mallia, from Pietà, admitted carrying out a series of fraudulent transactions between February 2022 and March 2023.
The charges concerned fraud committed through false names or credentials and fictitious business dealings, causing losses to eCabs Operators Company Limited and four individuals.
The offences were committed in several localities, including Żabbar and Marsaskala, and included the unlawful use of an electronic communications network or device.
Some of the individual victims suffered losses exceeding €500, while the loss involving eCabs exceeded €5,000, placing that offence within a more serious punishment bracket under the Criminal Code.
Mallia registered an unconditional guilty plea during a sitting on June 25. Magistrate Ann Marie Thake warned him of the possible consequences and gave him time to reconsider before confirming his admission.
The court found him guilty of the principal charges and acquitted him of a number of alternative charges arising from the same acts.
In submissions on punishment, the defence argued that the court should apply a provision allowing it to impose a sentence below the legal minimum in special and extraordinary circumstances.
The defence pointed to Mallia’s cooperation, his practically clean criminal record and the fact that all the victims had been repaid.
Documents filed in the proceedings showed that the outstanding amounts had been settled by April, while the prosecution and the victims confirmed that they had received the money due to them.
The court, however, rejected the request to impose a punishment below the minimum.
It said reimbursing a victim was a legal obligation and could not, on its own, be considered a special and extraordinary circumstance.
However, the repayment remained an important mitigating factor and suggested that Mallia had acknowledged his wrongdoing and had realistic prospects of rehabilitation, the court said.
The court also observed that his admission could not strictly be described as an early one because it was registered after the prosecution had closed its evidence. Taken together with the repayment of the victims, however, it demonstrated that he had accepted responsibility.
Mallia was sentenced to four years in prison, suspended for four years. The court warned him that committing another offence punishable by imprisonment during the operational period could result in the suspended term being brought into effect.
Inspector Keith Xerri prosecuted. Lawyers José Herrera and Martina Herrera appeared for Mallia.