Missing application sinks fake driving licence case
Prosecution failed the ‘best evidence’ rule, court held
A taxi driver has been cleared of charges of submitting a fake Slovenian driving licence to Transport Malta after a court found prosecutors never exhibited the application at the centre of the case.
Martin Lazarevski, 32, from North Macedonia, was acquitted by Magistrate Leonard Caruana of forgery, knowingly making use of a false document and making false declarations to a public authority.
The charges go back to October 2022, when Lazarevski applied for a driver’s tag with Transport Malta. He needed this permit to continue working as a cab driver, which employment records show he had been doing since August that year.
Transport Malta director Brian Farrugia testified that the application included a copy of a Slovenian driving licence. Since this was a European licence, officials checked the licence through RESPER, the EU’s driving licence network, but the search returned no record.
Slovenian authorities subsequently confirmed in writing that they had never issued Lazarevski a licence, prompting the authority to file a police report.
While under interrogation in February 2023, Lazarevski denied ever submitting a Slovenian licence. He said he held a Macedonian one and knew nothing of the document.
He also said he was already in possession of a driver’s tag.
Three charges, three failures of proof
On the forgery charge, the magistrate pointed out that the prosecution gave no evidence whatsoever confirming that Lazarevski himself had carried out the falsification, nor that the document had ever existed as an original rather than a copy.
On the charge of knowingly using a false document, the court held that the prosecution failed the “best evidence” rule.
While Transport Malta’s liaison officer, Joseph Pace, confirmed in general terms that the Slovenian authorities had replied, stating that no licence existed, the actual correspondence attached to the police complaint was never confirmed on oath by the recipient.
Without that, the court said it could not rely on the documentation to establish that the licence was false. Since the falsity was not established, the question of whether the accused had used it became irrelevant.
On the false declaration charge, the court pointed out that the prosecution never exhibited the application form Lazarevski allegedly submitted.
“The court has no visibility of the declarations made by the accused or their falsity,” the magistrate said, making it impossible to examine the elements of the offence.
Police Inspector Elisia Scicluna had admitted that the police had no access to Transport Malta’s online verification system, that she could not verify the authenticity of the documents and that she had never obtained the originals of the copies supplied by the authority.
The court found the prosecution had not proved its case according to law and acquitted Lazarevski of all charges.