Cleared of misappropriation

A former company director was yesterday cleared of misappropriation after a magistrate ruled he had no control over the "unexpected circumstances".

Noel Buhagiar, 33, of Qormi, who was one of the seven company directors at Small Shops Limited, was cleared of the misappropriation of Lm3,000 to the detriment of Mario Tanti, Gerry Vella and Carmel Magri on August 6, 1998 and the previous months.

Magistrate Abigail Lofaro heard Tanti, Vella and Magri explain that they had each given Buhagiar Lm1,000 to become shareholders in Small Shops Limited but they were never registered as shareholders and when the company was wound up in 1999 they were not given their money back or a share of the company.

The magistrate heard Buhagiar explain that when Tanti, Vella and Magri gave him the money he had passed it on to the company's accountant, Saviour Cauchi, who deposited it in the company's Bank of Valletta account. This, the magistrate noted, was corroborated by Cauchi. The problem lay in that, due to disagreements between the directors the board never met to discuss registering Tanti, Vella and Magri as shareholders.

It had not been proven that Buhagiar wanted to make a profit by accepting the money or that he had the intention to misappropriate it.

Evidence showed that Buhagiar had done all he could to register the three men as shareholders but they were not due to circumstances he had no control over.