A magistrates’ court has ordered the police to investigate “thousands” of images retrieved from a camera hidden inside a ladies’ bathroom discovered during money-laundering investigations.

The snippet of information was divulged in court on Monday when criminal proceedings resumed against Florinda Sultana and Albert Buttigieg who are currently pleading not guilty to involvement in the running of two fish restaurants, allegedly used to launder funds linked to oil smuggling.

When testifying against Buttigieg, IT expert Martin Bajada said that his task had consisted in examining some 32 electronic devices, which yielded 458 gigabytes of data collected in 81 boxes of evidence.

Of all the devices seized during police raids, only three pen drives and a laptop hard disk were relevant for further investigations for money-laundering purposes.

But some 14,000 photos retrieved from a camera, ‘covertly’ placed inside a ladies’ toilet and flagged by the expert, prompted presiding Magistrate Donatella Frendo Dimech to order police to delve further into the matter.

“Are you sure of this?”asked the court.

“Certainly,” replied Bajada.

Faced with that testimony, the court ordered the Police Commissioner to investigate the matter so as to ascertain any prosecutable wrongdoing, further ordering notification to be served upon the Malta Tourism Authority.

As the hearing continued, architect Claude Mallia recalled having met Darren Debono and Daimer Goodlip at Capo Mulini to discuss a works application submitted in 2017.

While failing to identify anyone in court, Mallia said that he had dealt with Debono and Goodlip when filing another works application in respect of the Valletta-based Scoglitti restaurant, approved in 2018.

Italian chef Alessandro Di Pietro told the court how he had worked at the accused’s restaurants, starting off in 2018 at Scoglitti, later known as Porticello, before moving on to Capo Mulini.

He said Sultana ran the Valletta restaurant.

“I saw her every day,” the man said in English, occasionally lapsing into Italian as he explained that “every so often” he saw “Signor Alberto” at the Marsaxlokk restaurant.

However, he followed instructions handed out by the chef de partie.

Asked about ownership of the restaurants, he said that he always saw the same people, although he spent most of the time in the kitchen and was paid by cheque.

“I think the money came from Floren [Florinda Sultana],” he said, adding that he had come to Malta in search of a job.

That payment method was confirmed by another former kitchen help at the fish restaurants, Aaron Dalli, who declared that as long as he got his wage, ownership of the establishment did not matter much to him.

A former head waiter who worked at Scoglitti for four or five years, said that Sultana gave out orders, set the staff roster and managed the day-to-day running of the business.

With a long line up of witnesses scheduled for the hearing, the prosecution informed the court that a number of those expected to take the witness stand on Monday had not been duly summoned.

Several notices of summons had been returned to court with a “negative reply,” sparking a stern warning by Magistrate Frendo Dimech who pointed out that half-baked efforts to trace witnesses resulted in time wastage for the courts.

While courts were doing their utmost to handle money laundering cases involving voluminous documentary evidence, as efficiently as possible, last-minute setbacks spelt time wastage, often wrongly attributed, by society at large, to the judiciary, she said.

Pecuniary penalties will be handed down if such behaviour persisted, said the magistrate, ordering communication of the court minute to the Attorney General, the Police Commissioner, the Home Affairs Minister and the Justice Minister.

The case continues next month.

Lawyers Stefano Filletti and Martina Cuschieri were defence counsel.

Inspectors James Turner,Omar Caruana and Joseph Xerri are prosecuting, assisted by AG lawyers Antoine Agius Bonnici and Cinzia Azzopardi Alamango.

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