Mayor acquitted in council laptop case

The fact that a  mayor allowed his daughter to browse the internet on his council laptop did not constitute misuse of public property, and neither was it misappropriation or embezzlement, a magistrate ruled yesterday.

Magistrate Edwina Grima delivered her verdict as she cleared 56-year-old Charles Saliba, the former mayor of Zebbug, Gozo, from misappropriating the council’s laptop by allowing his daughter to access Facebook and using it to write her school assignments.

Magistrate Grima ruled that the prosecution did not manage to prove one crucial prerequisite for the crime – the criminal intention.

Moreover, she said,  another prerequisite was that this had to be done for someone’s personal gain. She used as an example, renting out the council laptop to a third party at a charge.

Magistrate Grima in her judgement as she said it was “obvious” that a laptop was meant to be taken home for councillors to carry out their job better.