Home Affairs Minister Byron Camilleri has said he would be worried if no action was taken against the police and Identità officers who have been charged with alleged criminal acts.

“People everywhere make mistakes. I worry when I see these cases but I would worry even more if action was not taken,” Camilleri said in a recent interview with Times of Malta.

Camilleri was speaking after a number of police officers and public officials were recently charged with crimes including leaking information to criminals, identity theft, money laundering, human trafficking and forging documents.

Drug squad police sergeant Cherise Camilleri is alleged to have leaked information about upcoming police raids to third parties. She was charged in court last November.

Former police constable Gosef Tanti, who rented out an overcrowded and cockroach-infested property in Sliema, is being charged with money laundering, aggravated fraud, falsification of rental contracts and use of falsified documents.

And former Identità employee Maria Rita Spiteri, together with car dealer Bernard Attard, were charged with money laundering, human trafficking, fraud, bribery and document forgery involving stolen identities from Identità.

“In a perfect world, we wish that we didn’t have these cases but, unfortunately, in this country, we always had these cases and will probably always have them.”

What the government can do, Camilleri said, is provide all the resources to the authorities so they can investigate whatever they feel the need to.

“As you know, we have continued to give more resources to the authorities,” Camilleri said.

The recent slate of charges against public officials is nothing out of the ordinary, the minister insisted.

“What we’ve seen in the last months is almost exactly what has happened throughout the years,” he said.