A lawyer who lectures in EU economic law is involved in the local Dalligate police investigation, The Times has learnt.

Police will look into how she contacted Mr Zammit

Gayle Kimberley from Sliema is the lawyer who represented snus manufacturer Swedish Match in Malta during meetings at the heart of the cash-for-influence scandal involving former European Commissioner John Dalli and former Sliema deputy mayor Silvio Zammit.

Speaking in Parliament on Monday evening, the Prime Minister pointed out there were three people involved in the local probe.

The Times is reliably informed these are Mr Dalli, Mr Zammit and Dr Kimberley. Repeated attempts to contact the lawyer through phone calls and text messages proved unsuccessful.

The former Gaming Authority lawyer was effectively the whistleblower in this case, according to Swedish Match.

However, police will be looking into how she first made contact with Mr Dalli, sources have told The Times.

In a detailed chronology of events reported in The Sunday Times, the company said the lawyer reported to them that Mr Zammit had asked for a bribe in return for Mr Dalli lifting of a European ban on snus, a smokeless tobacco that can only be sold in Sweden under EU law.

The request was allegedly made during a February 10 meeting, which Mr Dalli insists never took place.

It is alleged that the former commissioner was not present when the request was made, having left the meeting early.

According to Swedish Match, Dr Kimberley told the company that before Mr Dalli left the meeting, he said he had “the will, the arguments and the Commission’s support to lift the ban on snus, but also that it would mean political suicide for him”.

Later, Mr Zammit told her such a risky decision would require payment, later specifying €60 million.

How Dr Kimberley came into contact with Mr Zammit, however, remains unexplained.

The snus manufacturer told The Sunday Times it never understood who had invited Mr Zammit to the meetings, raising questions about his middleman role.

Asked if this meant Dr Kimberley – whom the company never named – had made contact directly with Mr Dalli, Swedish Match spokeswoman Rupini Bergstrom said the company did not have that information.

“We have never initiated a contact with the Maltese entrepreneur. We have consistently said that we were approached via our consultant by him,” she said.

The ‘young lawyer’, as she was repeatedly referred to by different protagonists in the scandal that rocked Brussels, lectures on economic law at the University of Malta and specialises in competition law, intellectual property and gaming.

She worked at the Gaming Authority up to last July, before going into private consultancy.