A man facing charges of theft, fraud and circulation of fake currency, has been acquitted after his case dragged out proceedings for almost 20 years, their only witness being the prosecuting officer.

Nazzareno Dalli was first charged in September 2004 after police traced him as one of the suspects allegedly involved in a series of thefts from fuel service stations in the south.

His case was initially led by Ian Abdilla, who at the time was an inspector. Abdilla would go on to lead the police's economic crimes unit before being removed from that post and then suspended.

The case against Dalli began when the economic crimes unit received reports about fake currency being used at automated machines at fuel stations.

Three suspects were identified, one of them Dalli who was allegedly captured on stills from security camera footage from the Paul and Rocco station at Marsa. 

A third party had also lodged a criminal complaint after allegedly being paid in false currency by Dalli, Abdilla had testified. 

The suspect was charged with forging banknotes, possession and use of Maltese counterfeit money, fraud, theft of diesel and petrol as well as handling stolen goods. 

In 2004 proceedings kicked off with Dalli pleading not guilty to the charges. 

In February 2006, the prosecution declared that they had only one other witness to produce.

But that witness did not wish to testify since he too was undergoing criminal proceedings.

By September 2007, the situation remained unchanged and the stalemate continued up to 2012 when the court declared that it was granting one last deferment for the prosecution to wrap up its evidence.

Yet, the status quo persisted until the court finally put off the case indefinitely (sine die) following the umpteenth fruitless sitting in November 2013.

'Sole pending witness passed away'

In 2019 the case was assigned to a new magistrate. A new police officer took over the prosecution and filed an application for the case to be put back on the court’s list for hearing.

But in the meantime, that sole pending witness had passed away. 

In January 2023, the defence requested the court to declare the accused’s statement, released in 2004 without any legal assistance, inadmissible in evidence against him.

When delivering judgment, the court, presided over by magistrate Victor George Axiak, observed that this was “another classic example of unnecessarily dragged out proceedings” when the prosecution had only produced one witness in almost 20 years, namely the prosecutor himself.

Other than that, the prosecution came up with an ongoing refrain, repeating over and over that the only remaining witness wished not to testify since criminal proceedings were still pending in his regard.

The prosecution could have summoned other witnesses. 

And even that single witness could have been summoned to make his declaration to not testify, openly in court.

Instead, the prosecutor who was handling the case at the time persisted in such behaviour which the court tolerated until it finally put off the case indefinitely. 

As for the accused’s statements, the court followed a line of established caselaw which declared inadmissible those statements released by a suspect without legal assistance prior to February 2010, when Maltese law did not yet grant such right to the accused in the pre-arraignment stage.  

In light of the fact that the prosecution had produced no evidence, the court had no option but to acquit Dalli of all criminal liability. 

Lawyers Franco Debono, Marion Camilleri and Francesca Zarb were defence counsel.