A forensics expert who worked on the Vitals inquiry has been accused of using his privileged position as a court expert with access to confidential information to try and make a mint as a police consultant. 

Sam Sittlington offered the Malta Police Force a consultancy deal “worth close to €1 million” while he was working on a Vitals magisterial inquiry, lawyers representing Alfred Camilleri have alleged.

Camilleri’s lawyers made the claims in a judicial letter filed before the First Hall, Civil Court on Tuesday.

Camilleri, a former permanent secretary at the finance ministry, is among the second tier of persons charged in connection with the Vitals deal. He is pleading not guilty to fraud, misappropriation and committing crimes he was duty bound to prevent. 

Camilleri’s lawyers are now claiming that Sittlington abused of his privileged position as an inquiry expert, with access to sensitive and confidential information, to try to sell his consultancy services to the police corps. 

His end report was riddled with “inaccuracies and blatant conjectures” which exposed his flagrant conflict of interest and lack of impartiality as an expert, argued the lawyers. 

Sittlington's issues in Guyana 

The circumstances surrounding Sittlington’s report in the Vitals inquiry were “suspiciously similar if not identical” to the expert’s involvement in a previous case in Guyana, Camilleri's lawyers said. 

Sam Sittlington was among a raft of financial crimes investigators engaged to investigate the Vitals-Steward deals. Photo: X.com

In 2018, he was tasked by the UK authorities to assist the Special Organized Crime Unit in Guyana in investigating and prosecuting a number of persons suspected of involvement in high-profile financial crimes. 

But while carrying out that brief, Sittlington set up a private investment firm, called The Fraud Company (Guyana) Inc, “behind their back” using his privileged position to expand his private business interests, said Camilleri’s lawyers. 

Guyanese media reported that the UK government had terminated Sittlington’s contract with immediate effect when those reports surfaced. 

Now Camilleri’s lawyers are claiming that the expert sought to repeat his act while working on the Vitals inquiry by attempting to sell his consultancy services to the police corps for “close to €1 million.” 

“Whilst billing for your work on the inquiry you wanted to significantly increase your profits by commercializing the sensitive and confidential information you came to know about in the inquiry just as you did in Guyana. However, your attempt in Malta failed.” 

All this cast doubt upon the expert’s conclusions in his report which led to criminal action being “unjustly” pressed against Camilleri causing him “irreparable harm and damages.” 

The former public servant had an exemplary career spanning 30 years of service marked by “excellence and dedication.” He was now determined to persevere in achieving justice and bringing out the whole truth, his lawyers said. 

By means of his judicial letter, Camilleri informed Sittlington that he was being held personally and directly responsible for damages suffered as a result of his direct contribution in the Vitals inquiry. 

The legal act was signed by lawyers Franco Debono, Stefano Filletti and Maurice Meli.