Curfew-breaker is jailed, loses €30,000 bail bond

A man from St. Paul’s Bay has been jailed for breaching his bail conditions, losing a €30,000 bail guarantee in the process.

Aidan Chircop, 26, was sentenced to imprisonment for four months by Magistrate Donatella Frendo Dimech after he admitted to having failed to sign his bail book at the police station on several occasions.

Chircop had been on bail after being charged with a number of offences, amongst them 14 thefts from vehicles between January and March 2019 and recidivism.

On his part, the accused said he had medical certificates to show that he was sick on the dates he did not sign his bail book this month.

But police inspector Clayton Camilleri, prosecuting, explained that the accused had also failed to sign his bail book several times in December.

Chircop admitted that he did not have medical certificates for December.

He had previously been released on bail against a €2,000 deposit and a personal guarantee of €28,000.

The court, finding him guilty of breaching bail, jailed Chircop for four months – the minimum in the circumstances, as the crime is punishable by up to two years in jail and ordered that his €30,000 total bail security be forfeited in favour of the government.

Lawyer Martha Mifsud appeared for the accused.