A bar owner was remanded in custody on Sunday after he was accused of groping a 16-year-old employee.

The man, whose name cannot be published by court order, was charged with groping the girl, attempting to kiss her and making unwanted sexual advances.

The alleged incident took place between 1am and 3am on Saturday.

Magistrate Abigail Critien heard prosecuting officers Danika Vella, a lawyer from the Attorney General’s office and police inspector Daryl Borg charge the man with subjecting the victim to immoral acts and sexually harassing her.

Defence lawyers Franco Debono, Jose Herrera and Marion Camilleri told the court that the police report alleging inappropriate behaviour was filed after their client had confronted the girl about missing money from the till at his bar, where she had been working for the past few months.

They said that there may well be an element of revenge in the police report filed against their client, who had a clean criminal record as he had never been accused of any crime in the past.

However, Magistrate Critien said that given that the underage girl still had to testify in the proceedings, there was fear that the accused could tamper with evidence or in any way approach her to influence her testimony. She therefore turned down the request for bail and the man was remanded in custody.