Alleged criminal mastermind granted bail
Gatt to sign bail book twice a day
Former police inspector and lawyer David Gatt was yesterday granted bail after being held in preventative arrest since December 8 when he was accused of being the mastermind behind four high profile crimes.
Dr Gatt hit the headlines in late December when PC Mario Portelli testified that during a six-year friendship with Dr Gatt he was told by the lawyer how he had planned a series of major crimes.
Dr Gatt is pleading not guilty to complicity in a string of heists over the past three years, including the June 30 failed theft at the HSBC headquarters in Qormi that ended in a shootout with the police; the failed attempt to break into a security van carrying an estimated €2.8 million in cash in Qormi in January 2010; and the hold-up on the HSBC Balzan branch, in which robbers made off with almost €1.1 million on November 30, 2007.
PC Portelli said he only decided to come forward after he became privy to information about planned crimes, such as the intention to assassinate former Prime Minister and President Emeritus Eddie Fenech Adami.
PC Portelli testified Dr Gatt styled himself as Malta’s version of the infamous Sicilian mafia boss Toto Riina. Defence lawyer Joe Giglio told the court yesterday there was nothing stopping it from granting bail, especially at such a late stage of the proceedings and after the police had practically closed its case.
He said the Attorney General was only objecting to bail being given on grounds that Dr Gatt might speak to witnesses and might also contact his alleged gang members, Darren Debono, It-Topo, and Fabio Psaila, who stand charged with being accomplices and taking part into two major but failed hold-ups.
He said this did not hold water because the case was against Dr Gatt and no one else. Furthermore, his client is a former police inspector and, when he was unfairly dismissed from the force, he did not seek any other remedy apart from battling it out in court.
Magistrate Antonio Micallef Trigona said that, at this advanced stage of the proceedings, once the court was satisfied that bail conditions could be satisfactorily adhered to, he could grant bail.
He granted Dr Gatt bail against a personal guarantee of €10,000 and a deposit of €10,000. He also ordered him to sign the bail book twice a day at his local police station.
Lawyers Edward Gatt and Mark Vassallo also appeared for Dr Gatt.