A driver accused of causing a fatal drunk driving crash that killed two motorcycle riders in Mosta almost a year ago has been spared a one-year jail term and driving ban over a separate traffic accident. 

Karl Vella Petroni was handed that punishment after being found guilty last September of driving without a valid licence when he crashed his white BMW into a Mellieħa roundabout in March 2019. 

Although charged with driving under the influence, having an alcohol level above the prescribed legal limits, causing €846 in damages to the roundabout as well as relapsing, the Magistrates’ Court had only found him guilty of driving with an expired licence. 

He was condemned to a one-year effective jail term, the maximum punishment allowed by law. 

Vella Petroni appealed that conviction, arguing that the first court had wrongly assessed the evidence put forward, stressing that there was “an absolute vacuum” in so far as the charge of driving without a licence was concerned. 

Moreover, when spoken to by police after the accident, Vella Petroni was not given his legal rights as a suspect. Consequently, allowing his self-incriminating statement in evidence violated the accused’s fundamental rights. 

As for the punishment meted out for the only charge he was found guilty of, the defence argued that it was disproportionate even in light of the fact that the appellant’s driving licence had only expired six days prior to the incident. 

The Attorney General filed a separate appeal, asking the court to find Vella Petroni guilty on all charges. 

When delivering judgment on Tuesday the Court of Criminal Appeal, presided over by Madam Justice Consuelo Scerri Herrera, agreed with the defence in saying that the prosecution had produced no eye witness to explain how the incident took place. 

That March evening Vella Petroni was driving through Louis Wettinger Street, Mellieħa alongside a female passenger when his car collided with another vehicle, driven by another female friend. 

Her car somehow ended up on the roundabout, the woman later explained. 

Accused wasn’t read his rights 

Police officers who arrived at the crash scene said that both drivers smelt of alcohol and both were subjected to a breathalyzer test. 

Charges were subsequently pressed separately against both.

The case against the woman was dismissed because the officer at the scene wrote down the wrong number plate in his report. 

The judge observed that the dynamics of the crash were described by a police officer who went on-site and spoke to both Vella Petroni and the other driver. 

Yet, he never gave them the right to consult a lawyer before taking their versions, nor did he grant them the right to remain silent. 

And he also failed to explain that refusing a breathalyzer test was in itself an offence, the court found. 

An officer who checked on Vella Petroni at Mater Dei Hospital also failed to read him his rights or inform him that he was being investigated for a criminal offence.

All this ran counter to EU laws, the court said, which were introduced into the Maltese Criminal Code to safeguard the rights of suspects. 

Thus, the police officer’s own testimony was inadmissible since the information was obtained incorrectly, said Judge Scerri Herrera.

Without an eyewitness to confirm the dynamics of the crash, the prosecution also failed to prove that Vella Petroni had actually been driving at the time.

The accused’s own self-incriminating statement formed the crux of the prosecution’s case but once declared inadmissible, there was nothing else to prove that charge. 

The prosecution proved that the car licence was expired but not that Vella Petroni was driving at the time, concluded the court, thus upholding the accused’s appeal and clearing him of all criminal liability. 

The court turned down the AG’s appeal. 

Lawyers Gianluca Caruana Curran and Charles Mercieca were counsel to the appellant.