A woman who threatened and assaulted a manager at the Malta Community Chest Fund office after her request for €50 in cash was not met was reprimanded by the court and prohibited from setting foot there for the next three years.

Alexandra Scerri had turned up at the office located within the President’s Palace at Valletta in November claiming that she was to withdraw €50 in cash after having, earlier on, spoken to the President herself.

However, a female manager, well aware of the policy not to hand out donations in cash, told the visitor, not a first timer at the office, that she would first speak to the President to confirm the facts.

Upon doing so, the manager was informed that although Ms Scerri had indeed made such a request, claiming that she needed the money to pay for an ID card, no sum had been specified.

The manager returned to the waiting visitor explaining that the office was willing to hand out a cheque and refer her to a member of staff at Identity Malta who would be willing to see to her needs.

Upon receiving this information, the woman turned aggressive, hurling abuse at the manager and slamming her laptop shut onto the other lady’s fingers, even threatening “to chop off all her fingers”.

As she was being reluctantly led out, the woman grabbed a heavy paper weight and was stopped short of flinging it at her victim.

The entire episode was recounted in court on Tuesday by the manager herself who took the witness stand, as did another member of staff at the President’s secretariat, who had also seen the incident unfold before her eyes.

The latter explained that the accused had turned up at the office for financial help on several occasions before November’s incident when she had “rebelled and turned violent”.

A male security guard stationed at the office testified as to how he had heard a disturbance and had headed into the room just in time to witness the accused slam the laptop shut onto the manager’s fingers while threatening to “see her outside”.

Upon hearing this evidence, the court, presided over by magistrate Joseph Mifsud, observed that such behaviour was reprehensible, cutting short persistent attempts by the woman to put in a word in her own defence, in spite of her lawyer’s warnings not to speak.

“We were lucky to have had a President who opened her doors to help those in need, but such abuse is certainly not to be tolerated,” remarked magistrate Mifsud.

When making submissions on punishment, defence counsel George Anton Buttigieg pointed out that this had been a one-off incident and that his client had been well-behaved whenever she had visited the MCCF on previous occasions.

“While not condoning what she did, she certainly had no intention of doing wrong,” the lawyer argued, pleading for clemency.

In the light of the fact that imposing the statutory €58 fine would be “ridiculous”, the court formally reprimanded the accused and barred her from stepping into any of the MCCF offices over the next three years.

It also issued a protection order in favour of the injured party and other members of staff at the office concerned and called upon the legislator to raise the maximum limit of such fines to some €500.

Inspector Jeffrey Scicluna prosecuted.