A traffic policeman cleared of involvement in a large-scale racket linked to extra duties during infrastructural works on the Marsa flyover project has had his acquittal confirmed on appeal. 

Sergeant Francis Larry Sciberras was one of many officers charged in July 2020 with alleged complicity in the massive racket which investigators said took various forms, including claims for payments for extra duties that were never carried out.  

He was charged with alleged complicity in the fraud to the detriment of Transport Malta, Infrastructure Malta and/or the police corps, making fraudulent declarations as well as committing an offence he was duty bound to prevent. 

He pleaded not guilty. 

In January, Sciberras was acquitted by a Magistrates’ Court that concluded that the prosecution had “completely failed” to produce proper evidence of the fraud and of the deceit that was an essential element of the crime allegedly attributed to the defendant. 

When all was considered, Magistrate Rachel Montebello concluded that the prosecution had failed to prove its case.

The Attorney General appealed, arguing that the first court had wrongly assessed the law and the evidence was put forward. 

The court, presided over by Madam Justice Edwina Grima, cited at length the appealed judgment, pointing out that the first court did not only make a “learned exposition” about the legal elements of the alleged offences but also linked those elements to the evidence produced. 

Policeman kept no record of extra duties 

Sciberras, a sergeant with a 29-year career in the corps, had explained his work schedule over six years at the traffic section when releasing his statements to investigators. 

He worked shifts according to the work detail that was set by two sergeants, namely Sandra Galea Sillato and Norman Xuereb. 

Instructions regarding extra duties were relayed to him by Xuereb as the need arose and he also received payment for those extra duties from Xuereb. 

Although Sciberras kept a diary to record his work hours and payments, he kept no record of the extra duties which involved ‘fixed’ or ‘roaming’ surveillance to assist the flow of traffic in the areas where large-scale infrastructural projects were bound to cause chaos and disruption. 

The defendant denied doing extra work while on normal duty. He also denied sharing payments with someone else or taking direct cash cuts. 

Between 2018 and 2019, Sciberras received €13,464 for extra duties, of which €3,711 were allegedly undue. He had subsequently reimbursed that contested amount. 

When all was considered, the court said that although there was sufficient evidence to show that Sciberras was ‘roaming’ on certain occasions when he should have been on ‘fixed’ duty at the Marsa traffic lights, those instances were few.

Those few instances were his only shortcoming and his claim that he did not sense anything untoward in his payslip was credible.

There was no evidence of some form of prior agreement with Xuereb or other police colleagues to carry out the fraud. 

Text messages retrieved from other police officers’ mobile phones hinted at possible criminal wrongdoing, but those amounted to circumstantial evidence which alone was not enough to prove the defendant’s alleged complicity in the racket. 

And even if Sciberras might have been aware of what was going on around him, there was not enough evidence to prove that he was actively involved.

Moreover, Transport Malta and Infrastructure Malta, as the alleged victims, never complained about any payments they had unduly handed out for extra duties. 

All they did was to draw the Police Commissioner’s attention to the fact that sometimes there were no traffic officers at the site where their presence had been sought.

That complaint was immediately addressed and the complainants never asked the corps for a refund. 

Former IM chief Frederick Azzopardi had pointed out that when traffic police assistance cropped up unexpectedly, that assistance was given by the corps for no extra payment.

The offences attributed to the defendant were not proved, concluded the judge. 

Failing to inform his superiors about the racket which he might have been aware of, though not involved in, was not tantamount to a criminal offence. 

At most, he could be liable to disciplinary measures within the corps but no more, said the judge, rejecting the appeal and confirming the acquittal. 

Lawyers Ludvic Caruana was counsel to Sciberras.