Two sergeants from the police traffic section who were accused of involvement in a racket linked to extra duties during works on the Marsa flyover project have been acquitted of all criminal wrongdoing.

Judgment was delivered in proceedings against Matthew Azzopardi, 45 and Francis Larry Sciberras, 55.

They were charged in July 2020 with complicity in the racket whereby unlawful gains were allegedly obtained to the detriment of the police corps, Infrastructure Malta and/or Transport Malta.

The amount allegedly received in unaccounted-for extra duty payments by the two accused totalled some €5,000.

The two were also charged with making false declarations as well as committing an offence which, as public officials, they were duty-bound to prevent.

They protested their innocence from the very start.

Anonymous information triggered investigations

It had all started when police received anonymous information that a number of police officers from the traffic section were allegedly stealing fuel, skiving work duties, towing vessels against payment and seeking protection money.

Those allegations triggered a probe by the Anti-Money Laundering Squad which focused on the allegation that officers were skiving from work when they were supposed to be performing extra duties.

Prosecuting inspector Lianne Bonello testified that in Azzopardi’s case, police found no evidence of his involvement in any other of the alleged irregularities.

Extra duties were services offered by police officers upon the request of a person or entity against payment, according to agreed rates.

When those extra duties are done during normal work hours, payment is due to the corps.

The prosecution claimed that Azzopardi played a role in a conspiracy with other traffic officers to make unlawful gains through deceit and fraudulent means, claiming payments for services that were actually not rendered by him.

Another sergeant, Norman Xuereb, was identified as the alleged brains behind the racket because he was the one who met Infrastructure Malta and Transport Malta to discuss payments.

The prosecution claimed that several times, Azzopardi was not found in the area where he was supposed to be but moved about, occasionally tracked down in his home locality.

And when he worked extra duties during work hours, he got payment which was rightly due to the corps.

Court conclusions

After hearing all testimonies and scrutinising all documentation the court, presided by Magistrate Rachel Montebello, concluded that the prosecution had failed to prove the element of deceit that was one of the requisites of the offence under article 308 of the Criminal Code.

The prosecution “completely failed” to produce proper evidence of the fraud allegedly committed through “deceit, devices or pretences” intended to persuade the victim to part with his money and thus suffer a loss.

There was no evidence of some sort of communication between the accused and Xuereb to be assigned those duties.

Even less so was there evidence that Azzopardi was instructed not to report for work, or to carry out extra duties during normal hours, or to do other duties not related to his detail.

And when not found on the spot where he was detailed, there was no proof that he was conspiring with others to evade duties.

The prosecution also alleged that certain officers used to swap duties but then failed to produce concrete and conclusive evidence to support this allegation.

When all was considered the evidence was too “weak” to convince the court that the two accused were part of a racket and thus the accusation of complicity was not proved.

Nor was there evidence that they made any false declaration or to mask something false as legitimate.

There was no fraudulent information on the signed time sheets. 

Even if the declarations in the invoices were not completely true and correct, the link to the accused was not satisfactorily proved.

Moreover, the clients receiving the service never complained with the corps and nor did they ever seek a refund for services not rendered.

Former IM chief Frederick Azzopardi testified that police presence had been necessary to expressly monitor the flow of traffic in the areas close to the Marsa project and other ancillary zones affected.

The project, described by Transport Malta official, Clint Axisa as “the biggest project we ever had,” went on for two years in one of the island’s most strategic areas and inevitably caused chaos and disruption in the zones through which voluminous traffic flowed on a daily basis.

That was why those entities had required both patrolling and static traffic policemen at the time.

That evidence supported the version of the accused. 

Lawyer Mario Buttigieg was defence counsel for Azzopardi. Lawyers Ludvic Caruana and Maxine Vassallo were counsel to Sciberras.