A court will have to wait to hear evidence from the man who admitted to his role in a botched armed robbery on the HSBC headquarters as he has been put into COVID-19 quarantine.  

Darren Debono, known as it-Topo, was set to testify about the 2010 attempted armed robbery and ensuing police shoot-out on Thursday, but, sources said the case had been postponed after he was ordered into quarantine.  

Debono has a health complication and is considered vulnerable. He has not yet tested positive for the virus.  

Earlier this month, Debono, a known criminal with a lengthy court history, was sentenced to 10 and a half years in prison as part of a plea bargain on the same case.


Lawyer Edward Gatt who is appearing for Debono, got that deal signed with the prosecution the night before the trial against Debono and his co-accused Vincent Muscat, known as il-Koħħu, was set to begin.  

It is understood that Debono agreed to give evidence against Muscat while the charge against him of attempted homicide of police officers was dropped.

That raised eyebrows, with a police union among those questioning why the attempted murder charge had been dropped.  

There are also concerns about Debono’s reliability as a witness as he had previously been found guilty of lying under oath in a murder case.


As the trial by jury was about to begin, prosecutors asked the court to include Debono on the list of witnesses.

Muscat’s defence lawyers, Franco Debono and Roberto Montalto, strongly objected, insisting that it would be a breach of Muscat’s right to a fair hearing to hear a new witness at the trial stage.

The Criminal Court sent the case back to the Court of Magistrates to hear the new witness testify, postponing the start of the trial to Thursday.  

Investigators at the scene of the attempted robbery. File photo.

A daring attempted hold-up

The attempted hold-up at the HSBC headquarters in Mill Street, Qormi, took place on June 30, 2010, a day chosen because the police were occupied by a major open-air concert in Floriana and a state visit by the Italian president.

During the botched heist, three men, wearing wigs and fake moustaches had entered the HSBC building in Qormi.

The police arrived on the scene after receiving a tip-off about suspicious activity at the building and, on their arrival, a vehicle, parked in front of the bank, sped off with the officers giving chase.

The three men were still inside the bank when someone called for help and the officers returned. 

Some 65 shots were fired at the police who turned up on-site and foiled the daring robbery. 

The unsolved robbery attempt had puzzled investigators as the intruders seemed to have inside knowledge of the bank’s security measures and appeared to know their way around the large premises.