Man, 74, cleared of money laundering

A jury yesterday unanimously acquitted a man of money laundering charges after just an hour and a half of deliberation.

The frail 74-year-old, Vincenzo Stivala, was cleared of all charges and wheeled out of court by family members shortly after the jurors returned the verdict.

They found him not guilty of money laundering, acting as a financial institution without a licence and handling stolen property nine years ago.

Mr Stivala actually admitted that he had cashed a cheque for €52,507 which had not been issued in his name. The cheque had been given to him by a friend, Charles Meilaq. It had been issued by mistake by the Water Services Corporation in the name of Charles Dimech, who had done some construction work for the corporation.

The mistake was that Mr Dimech had already been paid. In court he insisted he knew nothing about this second payment.

People at the WSC were subjected to disciplinary measures over the incident but it was never established why the cheque was issued or how it ended up in Mr Meilaq's hands.

Mr Meilaq said he had asked Mr Stivala to cash the cheque for him because he was having problems with his wife and feared she would take it from him.

However, he refused to tell the court where he got the cheque from and added that he was never spoken to by police or arraigned in connection with this case.

In his closing speech on Tuesday, defence lawyer Emanuel Mallia said that where there were gaps in the evidence, one could not just fill in the missing pieces with what the prosecution thought should be there. "Suspicion is not proof," he insisted.

The prosecution had banked its case on the fact that Mr Stivala admitted he cashed the cheque which was not meant for him - a crime in itself.

Lawyer Arthur Azzopardi also appeared for Mr Stivala.