Maximilian Ciantar jailed over 2014 hit and run

Road hazard Maximilian Ciantar, 28, of Marsa has been jailed for 9 months after he was found guilty by Magistrate Claire Stafrace Zammit of running over a woman and crashing into another car in July 2014.

Ciantar first rose to notoriety after he was convicted of running over two 11-year-old girls on a zebra crossing in Attard in 2010.

He was arraigned several times since then. In this case, he faced 14 charges, including the breach of a suspended sentence of 8 months after breaching a probation order. The court once again suspended his driving licence for another 2 years.

The case was solved by officers from the Hamrun police station, led by Inspector Robert Vella. Ciantar, who had been jailed in 2010 after the incident involving the twin girls, was found guilty of fleeing the scene of a traffic accident, this time in Marsa a few metres from his home.

The incident occurred early in the afternoon in Triq Zerafa when Ciantar, who was driving his mother’s Renault, crashed into a Toyota being driven by a woman. Immediately after the incident the driver of the Toyota had got out of her car and told Ciantar that he had struck her vehicle. Eyewitnesses told the court that the man was then heard to say that if she wanted to, he could hit her car again, before driving once more at the woman’s vehicle, colliding with it.

He was also heard threatening to run over the woman before driving away from the scene of the accident. As soon as the report was filed, Ciantar became the subject of a search by the police who tried to find him and the car. Officers from the Rapid Intervention Unit went to look for Ciantar at his home in Marsa, as well as his parent’s house and his father’s workplace, but in vain.

It was only later that police from the Hamrun District found the fugitive at his grandmother’s house in Qormi. He was found to be sick and possibly under the effects of drugs and was taken to hospital for treatment.

The court found the man guilty of driving away from the scene of an accident.

Ciantar, a drug user, had been found in possession of heroin in 2012 when he was in the hospital. A year before that, he was jailed for threatening journalists in court for following one of his many driving arraignments.

His criminal record dates back to April 2010 when he had run over the twins Sarah-Marie and Rebecca Falzon, aged just 11 years old, and drove off. He had been driving at over 100km/hr when he knocked down the twins who were on a zebra crossing. Sarah-Marie Falzon spent time in a coma and was in danger of dying as a result.

Ciantar had been jailed for two years as a result of that incident but had been released after serving 16 months. His ten-year driving licence suspension had also been reduced to 16 months.

Lawyer Joe Brincat was Ciantar’s defence counsel.