A company partly owned by major property developers and hotel owners db Group has been held responsible for tiles found dumped in the sea just beneath the Sirens complex in St Paul’s Bay last month, even if the company insists "vandals" were behind the act. 

A spokesperson for the Environment and Resources Authority said the parties responsible for the dumping had been fined and made to clean up.

While the authority did not identify the parties, sources confirmed that a company named SRGN Company Limited had been held administratively responsible for the incident.

The company lists two entities as its shareholders: db Group, chaired by business magnate Silvio Debono, and the db-operated Seabank Hotel.

The group says it was vandals who took the tiles and dumped them into the sea.

On April 22, environmentalist and scuba diver Raniero Borg discovered that a pile of broken white tiles had been dumped in the sea right below the Sirens ASC complex, publishing footage showing the tiles sitting on top of the coral and algae on the seafloor.

New facilities are being constructed for the club, which received some €2.2 million from the Planning Authority’s Development Planning Fund.

SRGN is understood to be involved in the management of a restaurant on the premises.

The ERA said that it had investigated the incident and identified the polluter, taking immediate action. 

“The contravener was issued with an administrative fine as per the litter regulation and was ordered to clean the seabed,” the spokesperson said.

The regulator said it followed up with an inspection and ordered the contravener to do further cleaning. “ERA will continue monitoring the case until the cleaning is to its satisfaction.”

Footage obtained by Times of Malta shows the seabed is now free of tiles.

Sources said that the fine was of about €1,000.

According to new dumping rules announced by the government in 2020, the disposal of less than one cubic metre of limestone or construction waste should result in a fine of €1,000.

If dumping is over one cubic metre, it starts at €4,000, increasing in proportion to the amount dumped to a maximum of €50,000.

If such material is found to have been mixed with hazardous waste like asbestos, paint thinner or gypsum, then the minimum penalty starts at €6,000.

db Group had all tiles collected

A spokesperson for db Group said the tiles were stored legally outside the restaurant and were waiting to be installed.

“Through an act of pure vandalism, someone or some people decided to break and dump some of these tiles in the sea,” the spokesperson said.

“Indeed, we had skips on site specifically for any broken tiles which needed to be disposed of. Clearly, this proves, if such proof was needed, that this was an act of vandalism.

“Nevertheless, given that the tiles were ours, we had no option but to pay the administrative fee which we duly did. We also collected all the tiles from the seabed. Obviously, we incurred extra costs to replace the vandalised tiles.”

Decrying the incident as “deplorable”, the company added that, until the restaurant starts operating, a security guard has been engaged to prevent further acts of vandalism.