Charged with damaging government car

A parliamentary secretary's driver was yesterday charged with filing a false police report and damaging the official car used to drive as part of his job in an attempt to disguise an accident as vandalism.

Clive Bianco, 28, of Żejtun, had reported on Christmas Eve that Parliamentary Secretary Mario Galea's official VW Passat had been vandalised with obscenities scratched across the left-hand side while parked in front of his house overnight, Police Inspector Jeffrey Cilia, prosecuting, testified.

The dark blue car had several long scratches and obscenities written on one side. Both the Nationalist Party and the Labour Party had condemned what was then thought to have been a case of vandalism.

Mr Bianco pleaded not guilty to making a false police report and damaging the car, which belonged to John's Garage.

Mr Cilia told the court that after noticing that some points mentioned by Mr Bianco in his first statement did not add up, the police decided to conduct forensic investigations on the car. On being faced with the evidence, Mr Bianco explained that after having dropped off Mr Galea, Mr Cilia went to Għaxaq to visit his girlfriend and then went home at about 3 a.m.

When he was about 200 or 300 meters from his house he lost concentration and crashed into a rubble wall but left the scene in a moment of panic, the inspector said.

Mr Bianco then went home but, realising he had made a mistake, filed a report about the accident. At that point he thought he would lose his job because of the accident and tried to disguise the damage as vandalism by scratching obscenities on the side of the car.

Defence lawyer Franco Debono appeared for Mr Bianco.

The case continues.