Out of a total of 3,075 people who were taken to court accused of not paying their spouses or children's maintenance after separation, 342 were given a prison sentence. These are statistics gathered from the beginning of 2012, all the way until May 2016.
This was presented in Parliament by Justice Minister Owen Bonnici in answer to a parliamentary question by PN MP Etienne Grech.
The Minister explained that prison sentences varied from one week to a maximum of three months. There were some cases where persons were found to be relapsing and where sent to prison for six months.
Full statistics below:
|
Year
|
Number of Cases
|
Number of Prison Sentences
|
|
2012
|
601
|
66
|
|
2013
|
723
|
79
|
|
2014
|
589
|
62
|
|
2015
|
698
|
77
|
|
2016 (Until May)
|
464
|
58
|