Two men, David Coleiro and Raymond Debono, were charged in court yesterday with allegedly defrauding a number of companies of some Lm50,000.

Both men were granted bail against a personal guarantee of Lm1,000 each and strict conditions.

Prosecuting Inspector Ian Abdilla said police investigations showed that Coleiro had approached a series of companies with a Chinese man in a bid to sell them products which were meant to be imported.

In the meantime, the same companies were approached by Raymond Debono who told them that he had Libyan clients, who would buy the products Coleiro wanted to sell them.

Coleiro's lawyer Jason Azzopardi, however, denied the claims on behalf of his client, arguing that the defence intended to show during the proceedings that the case was simply a business deal gone wrong.

Inspector Abdilla argued against the release on bail of the two accused, particularly Coleiro, who, he said, was very difficult to trace. To bolster his argument, the inspector said that the police had first received a complaint a year earlier and that the delay was mostly due to them trying to track down Coleiro.

Dr Azzopardi argued that it was not the man's fault if the police looked in the wrong place for him, pointing out that another inspector had his client's mobile number and that he would call him on it whenever he needed to speak to him.

Dr Anthony Farrugia, Debono's counsel, countered another of the prosecution's arguments against the release of the men on bail. The inspector argued that the men could approach and potentially intimidate the witnesses which the police intended calling to the stand later on.

Had the accused wanted to threaten anyone, Dr Farrugia argued, they had every opportunity to do so in the past year or so.