Should A Mistake Haunt You For Your Entire Life In Malta?
The recent case of two law graduates being held back from getting their legal warrants due to a minor crime they committed 8 years ago has led to an important question: how long should a criminal conviction stick with you? Lovin Malta spoke to someone else who can’t get his lawyer’s warrant because of a mistake he made in his teens.
Over a decade ago, David*, aged 19, was pulled into a situation that would haunt him his whole life. After being caught at a party with some weed on him, he knew he was in trouble.
“I had a few pieces on me as I had picked up for friends then went to meet them at a party, where I was searched by CIDs. They immediately took me to be interrogated,” says David.
“At the time I didn’t realise the implications. I said, ‘let me just admit and cooperate,’ so I gave them a statement,” said David. “I admitted to the charge thinking I would put it behind me, sort of pay my debt and be done with it.”
Yanica Barbara and Thomas Sant, the two law graduates
Similar to the infamous Daniel Holmes case, David waited six years before he was fully prosecuted. In that time, he had changed and matured as a person – but he still had to serve some time in jail.
However, his dues were not fully paid. Over a decade after that fateful party, David is still suffering the consequences. Just like the two previously-mentioned law graduates, he studied law and graduated, only to realise he life wouldn’t be much easier after graduating.
“There have been several consequences. I have been dismissed from work after someone found out about what happened. In one case I left a good job to start a new one – they had poached me from a previous firm – and after two months they just called me into a room and fired me,” he says.
David believes that the current way the system works does not incentivise reforming. Indeed, it makes it harder.
“There’s a difference between being a lawyer already and doing something wrong, and being 19 and doing something stupid,” he says. “There’s no clemency, no looking at the individual’s case: it’s a blanket ban,” he says, referring to the fact that law students cannot get their warrant if they have had a criminal conviction.
Worse off, once this happens, it makes the person feel like there’s no hope for them.
“Once that person sees there is no reforming possible for them in the authorities’ eyes, they are going to say ‘fuck it’ and just go ahead and do what they were doing,” points out David.
David says he feels like the situation has changed from over a decade ago: “If I were caught now, I would have gotten a slap on the wrist.”
But he feels like the underlying problem remains: If I make a mistake as a youth, will I suffer the consequences my entire life?
“I understand a ban on people who offended and then immediately try to become a lawyer – but years later as well?” he asks.
“I have to constantly weigh my decisions, and the only reason I found employment is because I found an employer who was OK with it. When I travel, I think: ‘Can I even travel to this country, will they stop me, am I going to ruin my friends holiday’?”
“But it never goes away – it’s like a parasite on your back, every time you advance to the next stage in your career you need to disclose to more people, more the higher ups, and one day you’ll meet someone who will just say ‘no’ and just like that, you’ll be dropped back to stage one.”
“I’m 40 – do I really need to have to say ‘yes, when I was young I made a mistake,’ to everyone I meet for my whole life?”
*Names were changed
Do you think someone’s mistake should haunt them their whole life?
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