The court has ruled that a man is compensated €800 after he was tried twice for not filling out tax forms.
Angelo Zahra was first fined by the department and subsequently he was criminally prosecuted. However the court has now ruled that if a fine is imposed on a person for an offense, that person should not be prosecuted criminally for the same offense.
Mr Zahra filed a court application against a judgment given on 9 March 2012, asking for the sentence to be revoked and for compensation.
In 1995 he registered the company Stratford Company Limited with the Tax Department, but in 2008 he was handed a 13-month prison sentence for evading tax and he was obliged to pay the sum of Lm32, 281.85. The sentence was later revoked to an effective imprisonment after he failed to pay within the stipulated period.
In March 2012 he was charged with failing to filling in and submitting tax forms and he was fined €1000. He appealed this case.
The court said that the applicant was tried again for an offence on which a judgment was already passed and this should not be the case.
It ordered a compensation of €800.
Chief Justice Silvio Camileri and Judges Giannino Caruana Demajo and Noel Cuschieri presided. Lawyer Robert Attard signed the application.