A court today awarded €600 in compensation to a man whose traffic accident case was deferred no less than 17 times and had to wait more than six years for sentencing.

Francis Farrugia, 79, had been ordered to pay €12,000 in compensation to Nicolina Colette Garcia and Manuel Chetcuti over a 2005 St Paul’s Bay traffic accident. The case was instituted in 2006 by their insurance company, Gasan Mamo Insurance.

The court heard how evidence was heard but the the proceedings were then deferred seventeen times and the sentence was only handed out in October 2013, after the case was transferred to another judge and the evidence heard for a second time. The sum Mr Farrugia was ordered to pay included 8% interest accrued since the start of the proceedings.

Mr Farrugia filed a case against the Attorney General, claiming that the time taken by the court to deliver sentencing was excessive to the point that they went against the principle of a fair hearing and the enjoyment of his property. He claimed that this had resulted in illegally incurred financial burdens.

The AG argued that the courts were not bound by a time limit as this could result in unnecessary haste. The court, presided by Mr Justice Anthony Ellul, said the delays could only be attributed to the fact that the courts had taken too long to carry out sentencing. This was not a complicated case and, in fact, all the evidence had been gathered in the space of a year.

The judge ruled that Mr Farrugia had been denied the right to a fair trial but dismissed the second exception, noting that he had never complained about the delays during the proceedings and had never sought legal remedies. Mr Farrugia was awarded €600.