Two young men arraigned on Easter Sunday were granted bail after pleading not guilty to stealing copper cables from the Casino de Venezia site at Vittoriosa.
Gareth Chlach, 23 and Jean Claude Fava, 22, both Cospicua residents, landed in custody following investigations sparked by an anonymous tip-off.
Both were separately charged over the theft which allegedly took place on Saturday morning and was aggravated by the value of the copper items allegedly stolen to the detriment of the government and/or the Lands Authority.
Chlach was further charged with carrying a sharp or pointed instrument without the necessary licence by the Police Commissioner.
He was also charged over a separate incident which took place at a private residence at Żabbar, late on March 27 evening, when he allegedly caused damage to third party property and wilfully disturbed the repose of residents.
Both youths were also separately charged with breaching previous bail conditions.
In September, Chlach was arraigned over a case of alleged domestic violence involving social media personality Terry Muscat, better known as ‘Terry ta’ Bormla,’ and was granted bail some two weeks later after the victim testified in court, declaring that she “wholeheartedly” forgave her alleged aggressor.
Both pleaded not guilty.
Their request for bail was objected to by the prosecution even in light of the fact that both youths had allegedly failed to abide by previous court orders.
Police had come across the copper cables at the youths’ homes, along with other items possibly linked to the alleged offences, the court was told.
However, the accused’s lawyer, Charmaine Cherrett, pointed out that there had been no break-in, since the site of the alleged theft was an abandoned building.
After hearing submissions by both parties the court, presided over by magistrate Astrid May Grima, upheld the request for bail against a deposit of €1,000, a personal guarantee of €10,000 each, daily signing of the bail book and abiding by a curfew after 7:pm.
Inspectors Darren Buhagiar and Kurt Farrugia prosecuted.Lawyer Charmaine Cherrett was legal aid counsel.