Car rental entrepreneur Christian Borg was cleared of illegally employing foreign workers at a Luqa carwash after a series of blunders by the prosecution and investigations that were “far from satisfactory”.

The alleged kidnapper was acquitted by a court that ruled his ties to the carwash company specified by the prosecution had not been proven. 

The case dates to December 11 of 2018,  when Jobsplus officials accompanied by police officers inspected the garage on Ħal Farruġ Road, Luqa.

On that day, three people - an Indian, a Ghanaian and a Serbian national - were washing cars at the garage.

It was eventually confirmed that six foreigners worked at the car wash, all of whom said that Borg was “the boss”. 

Throughout the investigations, Borg introduced himself as someone “involved in Goldcar Operations Ltd", willingly giving his statement to the police. 

He was subsequently charged in his personal capacity and also in his role as representative of that company, for employing foreigners without a valid permit, for failing to notify the Employment and Training Corporation (now Jobsplus) and for relapsing. 

According to the ETC compliance document, Princess Garage was responsible for Goldcar Car Wash and Borg’s employment history showed that he was “self-employed full time at Princess Garage since 2012,” besides other non-related part-time jobs. 

However, the prosecution failed to produce concrete and clear evidence that Gold Car Malta, Goldcar Operations Ltd and Goldcar Car Wash were one and the same business, or somehow linked. 

Borg told police that the foreign workers were “in training” while their papers were processed by Jobsplus, seeming to draw blame upon himself when, at least formally, the prosecution failed to prove that he had any connection with Goldcar Operations Ltd. 

After detailing all the shortcomings and blunders by the prosecution, the court, presided over by magistrate Nadine Lia observed that the investigation was “far from satisfactory".

Workers not summoned to testify

The workers themselves were not summoned to testify and their statement. “taken briefly” by the police, was neither registered nor exhibited in the records of the case. 

No other statement was taken before the workers left Malta.

Nor did the prosecution produce other employees who were present at the time of the inspection to shed light upon the case, the court added.

That meant court was denied the chance of hearing directly from those involved.

Registered director was just a 'screen'

The person registered as the company director at the time had given “generic and vague” replies, seemed uncomfortable at the witness stand and did not give details about the company he claimed to own. The prosecution did not put any relevant questions to the witness and did not run any “basic verifications” about his role. 

It was the court itself who had to seek out the truth about the connection between that witness and Borg, reaching the conclusion that the registered director was just a “screen,” only formally in control. 

A simple check by the prosecution with the Malta Business Registry would have sufficed, observed the magistrate. 

Although the court did not have the “slightest doubt” that Borg was intimately connected to Gold Car and Princess Garage, there was nothing in the evidence linking him to Goldcar Operations Ltd.

Nor was there evidence linking the foreign workers to that company. 

The court was convinced of the link between Borg and the workers but certainly not of the role as charged.

The prosecution’s choice “led to confusion [about the] web-like structure of Gold Car’s business” and when all was considered, the court pronounced an acquittal. 

Lawyers Gianluca Caruana Curran, Charles Mercieca and Ana Thomas were defence counsel.