A Wardija lawyer facing forgery and fraud charges yesterday told a court the deed he had passed on to a notary's clerk, and which police are claiming to be a forgery, was only a personal draft he had made for his own records and had been handed over with a warning that it was not a legal copy.

Dr Patrick Spiteri took the witness stand in his own defence and explained he had passed on the deed after Notary Ian Spiteri's clerk George Muscat had repeatedly asked him to see what he could do to provide him with a copy of the contract of the purchase from Carmelo Muscat so that he could draft a new contract regarding the sale to Emanuel Muscat.

Dr Spiteri, 37, of Wardija, testified before Magistrate Joseph Cassar. He is pleading not guilty to forging a contract and the signature of Notary John Debono and defrauding Emanuel Muscat.

Dr Spiteri explained how he owned three portions of land in Wardija which he had promised to sell to Emanuel Muscat.

It was a Monday towards the end of September when George Muscat called him for a copy of the deed published by Notary Debono because he could only draft the new contract if he obtained proof of past ownership.

The clerk also told him that he was missing an architect's plan but Dr Spiteri said he told the clerk he could do without it.

The clerk insisted however that he still needed a copy of the previous contract but Dr Spiteri told him that he only kept a copy of the contract at his office and he was not due in again before he went abroad the next day.

George Muscat asked him to see what he could do and Dr Spiteri told him he might have a draft copy at home and he would look for it.

He explained how he kept his documents at the office but kept some drafts of promise of sale agreements at home in a red box and architects' plans in a yellow box.

Dr Spiteri said he had gone to look for the document and had found a draft he had prepared and told George Muscat he would stop by his office on his way to the airport the next day and drop off the copy. He again warned him that this was not a legal copy.

George Muscat told him he did not mind because he only needed to fill in the paragraph about the provenance in the new contract.

Dr Spiteri said he stopped at George Muscat's office the next day as promised, gave him the copy and they went through it quickly before he left the office for the airport.

But Notary Spiteri called him on the Thursday morning while he was in a meeting abroad and pointed out that the copy of the contract he had given his clerk was not the same as that unearthed in the searches in the public registry.

The price was the same in both but there was no mention of the hypothecary charge (privilege).

Dr Spiteri said he explained to the notary that the copy he was holding was his personal draft but the notary insisted he should have a legal copy of the contract to ensure that the facts tallied.

Dr Spiteri said he told the notary he would do his best to make sure that he got a legal copy later on that morning. He called his secretary, told her where to find the contract and asked her to fax it to Notary Spiteri.

He later called the notary himself to make sure he had received it.

He also thought he should call Notary Debono to put his mind at rest since there seemed to be a misunderstanding surrounding the draft contract.

He tried to explain matters to Notary Debono but the notary told him he had been advised not to talk to him about it.

Dr Spiteri said he arrived in Malta early the next morning, at about 1 a.m. He had been travelling since the morning when he left Israel for the UK and then on to Malta after a few hours at his office in London.

In Malta he found a message that Inspector Bernard Zarb wanted to talk to him about the contract published by Notary Debono. Dr Spiteri told him he preferred to deal with the matter there and then and explained the situation to the inspector.

But the inspector wished to ascertain whether there was a copy of the draft on the computers at Dr Spiteri's offices. Dr Spiteri told him he was only too happy to have the inspector search his office but that he was not very familiar with computers and could not really aid him in his search.

Dr Spiteri said the inspector told him it did not matter because he would be accompanied by an IT expert and they went to the offices where they searched the computer system and found nothing.

Dr Spiteri said he informed the police that the person who took care of these matters was his secretary, a Mrs Zammit, and she was also the person who knew the passwords to everything.

He told the police that he did not wish to wake her up at such an hour - it was about 4 a.m. by that time - and asked them to wait for a short while because she had two small children.

When they eventually got hold of Mrs Zammit, she explained that she would normally open a new file to type the draft but that she would eventually make the changes in the same file.

When he heard this the expert declared that his software would not be able to detect the file.

Dr Spiteri was asked whether he had made the signature on the contract and he said he definitely had not.

He was also asked whether he remembered seeing the signature on the contract before he passed it on to George Muscat and he said he had no idea.

Fiona Cassar, an accounts department employee in Dr Spiteri's firm, said she was responsible for the accounts of Foresight Holdings.

Some months ago, Dr Spiteri had given her two documents and told her that Lm10,000 on each document would not be deposited in their accounts but would go to a certain C. Muscat.

Paul Busuttil said he was a friend of Dr Spiteri's and also knew Emanuel Muscat on business.

Some time ago, Emanuel Muscat had approached him and told him he wished to buy land adjacent to his property, knew that it belonged to Dr Spiteri and knew that he (Busuttil) knew him. He asked him to put in a good word for him and Busuttil said he told Emanuel Muscat he would mention it to Dr Spiteri next time he saw him, which he did.

But Dr Spiteri told him he was not interested in selling.

Some time later, he was talking to Emanuel Muscat's son and he learnt that Dr Spiteri had ultimately decided to sell the land because the son told him that his father had asked him to pass on the message that a promise of sale agreement had taken place and that he would think of him when the time came.

Busuttil said he told Emanuel Muscat's son to tell his father that he wanted nothing because he had only passed on the message for the sake of friendship.

The witness said Emanuel Muscat wanted to buy the land quite imperatively because he had some problem with the planning authorities over a swimming pool on his property.

The next time he spoke to Emanuel Muscat about the sale, Muscat had told him he was on his way to the police headquarters because the police wanted to talk to him about the transaction.

The prosecution and the defence then made their submissions and the case was put off for judgment.

Police Inspector Bernard Zarb is prosecuting.

Dr Emmanuel Mallia and Dr Giannella Caruana Curran are appearing for Dr Spiteri.