A Court of Criminal Appeal has ordered a man to secure a dangerous wall within the next fortnight after criticising the Magistrates’ Court for allowing the case to go on for four years.

The Magistrates’ Court had fined Alfred Mallia Lm50 for failing to obey police orders to repair a dangerous wall in St Paul’s Street in Attard and ordered him to repair the wall as well as pay for the fees of the court expert.

Following this judgment, Mr Mallia filed an appeal.

The court of criminal appeal, presided over by Chief Justice Vincent De Gaetano, noted that Mr Mallia case was “an example of how a case should not be run.”

Chief Justice De Gaetano said that, in this case, time was of the essence especially because it concerned a dangerous wall and the prosecution had to ensure that the case did not take long.

“With all due respect to the first court, there was no need to nominate a court expert to hear the evidence and compile a written report,” he said.

He went on to say that if the magistrate could not carry out an onsite inquiry, then he could have simply appointed the court expert to carry out one onsite visit in the presence of both parties.

However, the court expert was nominated in June and the report was presented four years after the charges were brought against Mr Mallia – in October 2006.

Chief Justice De Gaetano carried out an onsite visit on Friday and noted that a part of the wall was still unsafe, a large portion had collapsed due to the bad weather and that there was now a new building in another part.

In his judgement, Chief Justice De Gaetano confirmed the first court’s ruling and ordered Mr Mallia to pay the Lm50 fine.

However, he ordered Mr Mallia to pay half of the fees incurred by the court expert instead of the full fees and gave him a 15-day time frame to secure to wall and ordered that he will be fined Lm2 a day if this is delayed.