A former police sergeant and long-serving security officer for ambassador Richard Cachia Caruana has been handed a suspended sentence for falsifying the signature of the former representative to the EU to obtain undue overtime payments.

Mark Camilleri, 49, pleaded guilty to a number of charges linking him to fraud, whereby he falsified the signature of the high-ranking official who was to authorise his overtime payments.

The former policeman also admitted to making a false declaration as a public official and giving false information to a public authority.

Following a plea bargaining exercise, the former sergeant entered a guilty plea and was handed a two-year jail term suspended for four years, besides being ordered to refund €5000, the defrauded sum.

Mr Cachia Caruana, who also served as personal assistant to then Prime Minister Eddie Fenech Adami, was assigned a security detail after being stabbed outside his home in 1994.

A request for a ban on the publication of the accused’s name was turned down by the court, presided over by Magistrate Joseph Mifsud.

Lawyers Vince Micallef and Roberto Montalto were defence counsel.

Inspectors Rennie Stivala and Bernard Bunce prosecuted.

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