A restaurateur has been cleared of stealing some €7,000 worth of food from an importer and wholesaler after a court ruled that the prosecution had failed to prove the essential elements of the criminal case. 

57-year-old George Lanzon from Mosta, who runs three restaurants, had been charged with the theft after a police report was filed in 2015 by Valhmor Borg Import Export Ltd claiming that its stock, particularly that at Miracle Foods, was dwindling.

The company told the police it suspected that Lanzon, who had been their client for a good 25 years, had been in cahoots with an employee to steal food products. 

The company told the court it had smelt a rat when it found discrepancies in the stock list. It checked security cameras and the footage showed clients leaving the premises with a considerable amount of food with the reading on the corresponding receipt on the cash register showing that far less items were being inputted. 

General manager Kenneth Borg Caruana said that the company was finding entire boxes of products missing from its system. The total cost price of the missing products was €3,940. 

Former employee Jonathan Abela, who had been convicted separately of the theft, told the court that Lanzon knew the products were stolen because he was only paying a fraction of the price. He sometimes got the items 80% cheaper. 

Magistrate Nadine Lia heard how Lanzon was seen going to the shop eight times, each time taking products handed to him by an employee and not paying for them.

When Lanzon was arrested, he admitted that he had reached an agreement with the employee whereby he would take the items at a discounted price, most of them at half price. 

Lanzon told the court that he had receipts for his purchases but he did not check them in detail as his only concern was that the receipt corresponded with the amount he was paying. He would spend around €700 a week on food from the company, he said. 

Defence lawyers Veronique Dalli and Dean Hili argued that the evidence could not be considered satisfactory in view of what they described as the “vague assumptions” made by the employee in his testimony. 

Moreover, the prosecution had not summoned witnesses who could corroborate the employee’s testimony, they argued.

Magistrate Lia said that the prosecution had not clearly shown that the accused had been told the products were stolen and that was the reason why he was paying such low prices. It was not, therefore, proven that the accused had been stealing from Valhmor Borg.

The court said that reasonable doubt remained about the formal elements of the crimes with which the accused was charged, including the handling of stolen property.

There was insufficiently clear and direct evidence for the court to establish guilt beyond a reasonable doubt, the magistrate said as she cleared Lanzon of all charges.