Magistrate sends former schoolmate to rehab

A Magistrate has told a former schoolmate of his to address his alcoholism, while sentencing the man who was charged with stealing bottles of expensive wine from Farsons.

Magistrate Joe Mifsud delivered his judgement against 46-year-old Robert Farrugia, who was charged with stealing six bottles of expensive wines from a Farsons establishment.

In previous sittings, the court had been told that the four of the stolen bottles had since been returned. The remaining two, worth €260 in total, had been consumed, however.

Defence counsel Roberto Montalto told the court that his client had battled drug addiction and had sought treatment, only for this addiction to be replaced with alcoholism.

The outcome most beneficial to the accused and society at large would be placing Farrugia in a residential rehabilitation programme, said the lawyer, but pointed out that this could not happen if the man was imprisoned.

The Magistrate found Farrugia guilty of theft and of breaching the conditions of a previous conditional discharge.

In addition to fining Farrugia €300 for the breach, the court also placed the man on probation for three years, coupled with compulsory attendance at a rehabilitation programme.

Magistrate Mifsud said he had recognised the accused to be a former schoolmate of his at the Seminary, the shared background providing some reassurance to the court that the accused had acted out of weakness.

“You are not a criminal but you have let this vice get the better of you. I have given you a plan of action and the tools you need to get back on the right path.”

The magistrate said he hoped to never see Farrugia in court again.

“I hope if we meet again it will be at some seminary reunion,” Mifsud told Farrugia.

Inspector Roderick Agius prosecuted.