A serious breach in the handling of evidence was exposed in court yesterday after CCTV footage, allegedly showing massive fraud at the Casino di Venezia, was left abandoned in a rival casino.
Some 300 tapes had been entrusted to court-appointed experts James Holder and Martin Bajada, for Mr Holder to examine because he had access to the necessary equipment.
The lawyers appearing for Casino di Venezia had objected to Mr Holder’s appointment because he worked for the competition, the Dragonara Casino. But Magistrate Miriam Hayman had overruled the objection.
Yesterday, it emerged that Mr Holder had abandoned the tapes at none other than the Dragonara Casino, for more than a year.
Mr Holder left the island without informing the court or Dr Bajada of the tapes’ location.
The two court experts were meant to issue a joint report, with Mr Holder looking at it from a gaming perspective and Dr Bajada examining if money laundering had been committed.
The case goes back to 2006 when Italians Fabio Zulian, 47, Gaetano Caramazza, 65, and Slovenian Nevio Barut, 50 were charged with defrauding the Casino di Venezia.
Mr Zulian was also charged with money laundering.
Mr Caramazza has since committed suicide while Mr Barut filed a guilty plea and was jailed for three years and fined €7,000 in 2007.
The case against Mr Zulian, who used to cruise the island in a dark blue Porsche, stalled after he was allowed to travel to Italy to see his family and failed to return – losing a bail bond of €163,000 in the process.
Magistrate Miriam Hayman had asked Dr Bajada to put the report on the back burner until Mr Zulian was found, to limit court costs.
Eventually Mr Zulian was brought back to Malta, last October, after the issue of a European Arrest Warrant.
Testifying yesterday, Dr Bajada said Mr Holder, who has now moved back to the UK, informed him he had no intention of returning to Malta because he had recently separated and became a single parent.
It later transpired, through the testimony of Inspector Antonovich Muscat, that Mr Holder had left the tapes at the Dragonara Casino.
Magistrate Hayman said this was a very serious issue and Mr Holder risked being found in contempt of court. But since he was in the UK her jurisdiction was very limited.
Defence lawyer Stefano Filletti requested bail on the ground that his client, Mr Zulian, had not actually absconded but “simply failed to return”. He was found at the address where he told the court he would be. Also, having been in jail for a year and having a large amount of money confiscated was punishment in itself.
The decision on bail is expected to be handed down in the coming days.
The court also heard one of the accused had presented stolen cheques and bank drafts at the casino to be exchanged for betting chips.
At the end of the night, the winning chips were presented to the casino, which paid the winner in cash or through win cheques. Five payments amounting to €172,000 had gone through; the transfer of an additional €101,000 was stopped in time.