Man who shirked community work sentence fined €233

A man was fined €233 by a court on Tuesday after failing to report for community service that he was sentenced to for a 2016 charge.

Ahmad Yassine, 39, from Libya was found guilty of reporting a hoax bomb threat in court in 2016 and was subsequently sentenced to a €10,000 fine and 280 hours of community service.

Yassine only completed 102 hours of the community service and failed to continue to report for work. 

The accused was charged with making the bomb threat on 16 November at around 10am. Yassine, who has been living in Malta since the age of four, was undergoing separation proceedings at the time and had a court sitting before the Family Court on the day of the alleged offence, the court was told.

The court had described the accused as a “coward” for attempting to get out of facing his wife by scaring the whole court. 

Prosecuting inspector Priscilla Caruana had said that police investigations into communication networks had discovered that the phone call through which the hoax bomb threat was made came from the accused’s phone number.

Brought before magistrate Joe Mifsud on Tuesday, the accused said that he had immediately paid the €10,000 fine but had not completed the community service work he was sentenced to perform. 

“Unfortunately, due to crappy legislators and second-rate laws, I can only administer a fine of €232.94 for your failure to complete your community service which you were sentenced to complete,” Mifsud told the accused, arguing that such an amount was ludicrous and that it could guarantee that individuals sentenced with community service could easily shirk their duty. 

Yassine was ordered to pay the amount of €232.94.