The police raided a Sliema property on Tuesday after a Times of Malta investigation revealed a policeman is renting the property to more tenants than allowed by planning regulations.

Footage shows police officers asking tenants for documentation on the ground floor of the property before heading upstairs to a bedroom used by one of the tenants.

The video, first shown on SideStreet Malta, shows officers asking tenants to show them their living conditions. 

The police visit came hours after Times of Malta published details about the living conditions at the Norfolk Street property sublet by policeman Gosef Tanti and owned by lawyer John Seychell Navarro.

Video footage captured by a former tenant shows at least 11 beds spread across two upstairs rooms of the house and swarms of cockroaches in kitchen cupboards.

The tenants pay the 22-year-old police constable €250 per month each in rent and live in conditions described by the former tenant as “inhumane”.

When Times of Malta confronted Tanti during a visit to the property last week, the policeman said he did not think renting to so many tenants was wrong, despite knowing it was in breach of planning regulations, but conceded it was “not fair.”

Refusing access to the property, Tanti insisted that “no one can come here apart from the tenants; it’s in the contract... Even the police can’t come in without a warrant”.

It was during that visit he admitted he was a policeman, with sources confirming he was actively serving at the time of going to print.

Tanti claimed the police visited the house briefly at the start of August to check the work permits and Housing Authority documents of the tenants but found no issues.

In response to numerous questions, a spokesperson for the police only said the force “investigates all reports into breaches of professional standards and/or criminal offences allegedly committed by its members.”