Maximilian Ciantar released on bail

Convicted road menace Maximilian Ciantar has been released on bail against a deposit of €1,000 and a personal guarantee of €10,000.

Ciantar, 24, of Marsa, is pleading not guilty to dangerous and negligent driving while under a court ban, of driving without a driving licence and insurance, of threatening two people, and of disobeying police orders.

Ciantar caused public outcry in 2010 when he was jailed for two years for running over 10-year-old twin girls in Attard. He was subsequently handed a ten-year ban but an appeals’ court later reduced this to six months.

Earlier this years, an appeals’ court confirmed a one-year suspension of his licence given by a magistrate and banned him from driving until March 2015.

Notwithstanding his driving ban, Ciantar was allegedly involved in a collision with a Toyota Aygo while driving his mother’s Renault Megane. The incident occurred don July 8 when the 24-year-old man crashed into a Toyota Aygo before reversing onto a Ford Fiesta. He then allegedly threatened and insulted the drivers before fleeing the scene.

Police officers later found the man hiding at his grandmother’s house in Qormi.

In her decree handed this morning, Magistrate Claire Stafrace Zammit upheld the defence’s application for bail and released him against a deposit of €1,000 and a personal guarantee of €10,000.

Moreover, Stafrace Zammit also imposed a driving ban on Ciantar, and insisted that if Ciantar wants to drive somewhere, he must either catch a bus, or else ask his parents for a lift. Ciantar is also ordered to sign a bail sheet daily at the Hamrun police station, and prohibited from leaving his home between midnight and 7am.

Magistrate Stafrace Zammit also ordered Ciantar to take regular urine tests, that he reports to probation officer Mary Rose Farrugia, and that he reports to psychologist Mariella Dimech.

Inspector Robert Vella prosecuted while lawyer Joe Brincat represented Maximilian Ciantar.