A father who breached a court order to stay away from his estranged wife, in a bid to see his children, landed behind bars on Monday. 

The man, a taxi driver, was charged with breaching bail conditions and a protection order when he lingered outside the family's Marsascala home after dropping off a customer nearby, despite prior bail conditions requiring him to stay at least one kilometre away from the woman. 

He told police he had been hoping to catch a glimpse of two of his three children, who had shunned him for the past five years. 

The man, whose name is not being published to protect his alleged victim, was arrested and marched to court on Monday afternoon, where he was remanded in custody after pleading not guilty to the charges. 

Prosecuting inspector John Spiteri explained that the father had forfeited his right to supervised access visits to one of his children, over an incident that had broken out in March.

The other two children had been refusing to meet him for the past five years, the court was told, despite there being no protection order in their regard.

After dropping off his passenger some 10 doors away from the family home, the father had lingered close by, telling police upon his arrest that he had been "waiting for a few minutes to try to see his children". 

No request for bail was made at the arraignment and the court, presided over by magistrate Marse-Ann Farrugia, remanded the man in custody.

Lawyers Franco Galea and Ilona Debono were defence counsel.