A man who disobeyed court orders by failing to turn up at the local police station to regularly sign the bail book has been jailed and has lost his €30,000 bail bond.

Aidan Chircop, 26, of St Paul’s Bay, had been granted bail pending proceedings over a spate of car thefts that allegedly took place between January and March 2019.

On being accused of breaching bail, he claimed that he had been medically certified as ill and thus unable to go to the police station to sign the bail book.

He even had his doctor’s certificates to prove it, the man insisted.

However, prosecuting Inspector Clayton Camilleri pointed out that those certificates only covered some four occasions this month and that there were no certificates to justify the accused’s failure throughout December.

Chircop then pleaded guilty, confirming his plea after being given sufficient time to reconsider by the court, presided over by magistrate Donatella Frendo Dimech.

He was then condemned to a 4-month effective jail term, out of a possible maximum term of two years.

The court also ordered forfeiture of the €2,000 deposit and €28,000 personal guarantee imposed under the bail decree which the accused had breached.

Lawyer Martha Mifsud was defence counsel.