A court confirmed a previous judgement that cleared a man of cigarette smuggling charges after he toppled a boat carrying 500,000 cigarettes on a police car.
A court of appeal upheld a previous court judgment on Thursday that cleared Clayton Azzopardi of cigarette smuggling charges due to insufficient evidence in March 2024.
The court had only found him guilty of causing involuntary vehicle damage to a police car. He was conditionally discharged for six months.
Azzopardi was arrested in September 2016 after police received a tip-off about a suspected drug consignment that was due to be smuggled into Malta on his boat.
Officers from the drug squad watched Azzopardi as he docked his cabin cruiser in a bay in Marsaskala and brought the boat on land with the use of a trailer, which he attached to his Toyota Hilux.
As the police zeroed in, Azzopardi panicked and manoeuvred quickly, causing the cabin cruiser to tip over and fall on the bonnet of a police vehicle, causing it extensive damage.
Inside the boat, the police found several boxes of Richman Royal and Rocco cigarettes, amounting to over 500,000 cigarettes with a total value of over €14,500. In total, the cigarettes were subject to €85,000 in customs duty, almost €8,400 in import duty and around €19,400 in VAT.
He was charged with importation and possession of the cigarettes, failing to pay the relevant taxes and duties, committing these offences while under probation, as well as relapsing.
In the previous judgement, the court cleared Azzopardi of all his smuggling charges as it said that the prosecution failed to present sufficient evidence that proved that the duty and taxes on those goods had actually not been paid.
Subsequently, the prosecution filed a case with the Court of Appeal.
The court, presided over by Madam Justice Consuelo Scerri Herrera, noted how the prosecution relied on a statement Azzopardi gave to the police on September 8, 2016, in which he admitted that the cigarettes were undeclared.
However, Azzopardi spoke without a lawyer present, therefore, it declared this statement to be “inadmissible”.
The prosecution brought forward 13 witnesses who were involved in the case, but the court said that “no one confirmed that the cigarettes were untaxed”.
The court focused on a particular testimony that never mentioned that the cigarettes were untaxed, only that they were seized by customs so that they could later asses the duty.
The court found that this meant that further steps were required to determine whether Azzopardi paid duty.
The court upheld the initial judgment, stating that based on the evidence presented, it could not be established beyond a reasonable doubt that the cigarettes were contraband.
Defence lawyers Arthur Azzopardi and Jacob Magri represented the accused.