The owners of a fishing vessel who were accused of meddling with the ship’s logbook and breaching fishing regulations have been cleared of criminal wrongdoing after the prosecution failed to prove a link between the allegations and the accused.

David Debono and Andrew Debono, also as legal representatives of D. Holdings and Investments Ltd and owners of the fishing vessel Rosnik, had faced charges for making a false declaration in a public document and making use of that false document.

They were also charged with participating in a criminal association, breaking a seal placed under the order of a public authority, as well as several breaches of fishing regulations.

The allegations dated back to June 2014 and the preceding months.

Investigations stemmed from a criminal complaint filed by the director of fisheries in April 2016.

The director explained that according to EU legislation, every fishing vessel that is bigger than 12 metres must have a logbook. Moreover every fishing vessel must be equipped with a VMS system which enables the directorate to keep track of its activities by means of signals transmitted every two hours.

The system on board the Rosnik was not functioning, the court was told.

In such circumstances, the captain was bound to contact the Fisheries Monitoring Centre every four hours to relay the vessel’s geographical position.

The court was told that the seal on the Rosnik’s VMS system was broken and the apparatus switched off. The captain did not have a licence and several fishing regulations were breached.

When delivering judgment, Magistrate Claire Stafrace Zammit observed that there was no tangible and concrete proof of the alleged offences and there had been several inconsistencies and shortcomings in the gathering of evidence.

The prosecution did not produce evidence to show that the accused were actually those who logged in the incorrect information in the vessel’s logbook.

Rather, the logs had been signed by the ship’s captain, Mohamed Elsaka Said, who was separately prosecuted.

Regular updating of the logbook in terms of the Fisheries Conservation and Management Act was for public authorities to ensure that there was no illegal fishing.

The relative provisions of that law showed that the legislator wanted the captain to act as bonus pater familias when carrying out his work as fisherman and navigator. Updating the logbook was one of his duties.

The accused were owners of the vessel, not captains.

Moreover, David Debono testified that he was not on board at the time of the alleged wrongdoing.

As for the seal on the VMS system, the court observed that the captain was responsible for ensuring that that seal was not broken.

Both accused were not on board the Rosnik except during inspections by officials from the Fisheries Department.

The prosecution did not manage to prove the link between the allegations and the accused, the magistrate said, and it was not clear why the prosecution failed to summon the captain as a witness. He was the only one who could have confirmed the commission of the alleged offences.

Since criminal proceedings against him had since been concluded, there was no risk of self-incrimination had he been called to testify.

When all was considered the court cleared both accused of all criminal liability.

Lawyer Roberto Montalto was defence counsel.