CCTV footage of a jewellery shop where stolen gold was allegedly sold was found in the car of a man who has been missing since August, a court was told today.

The evidence was given during the continuation of the case against George Tabone, owner of Gram Collections, who is pleading not guilty to handling stolen property. 

Taking the witness stand, Police Inspector James Grech said that while investigating a theft from a jewellery shop in Valletta on August 8, 2011, he received information that three men were involved, one of them being Glen Debattista.

Mr Debattista told the police that he had sold the jewellery to George Tabone. He said that he would go to Mr Tabone's shop and Mr Tabone would switch off the CCTV of the shop and buy the jewellery. The loot included a solitaire worth €30,000.

When interrogated under arrest, Mr Tabone categorically denied buying any stolen gold, let alone from Mr Debattista. He was then taken to hospital suffering from chest pains.

The inspector said that on  August 11, he was informed that a certain  Matthew Zahra had been reported missing and the CCTV footage of Mr Tabone's shop was in his car.

Mr Zahra is still missing and investigations are still going on.

The police investigations showed that every time the CCTV cameras were switched off from the power supply, all records were erased.  The cameras were switched off 41 times in 220 days.

Lawyer Michael Sciriha pointed out that his client had completely denied the accusations and so did another employee.

He pointed out that Mr Debattista was well known to police and he asked why the police relied on him when they knew he was a liar. He asked the inspector whether the police had checked others jewellers about the stolen items.

The officer said that checks are regularly carried out.

Taking the witness stand, Police Inspector Melvyn Camilleri, said that he was part of the investigation. It resulted that Mr Tabone asked Mr Zahra  to drive  him to the airport and handed him the CCTV footage to keep for him. The footage did not show the stolen gold but included something which Mr Tabone did not wish his wife to see.  

Taking the witness stand, Josianne Ciantar Bonnett, who used to work at Gram, said she would buy gold from customers. She said she never saw Mr Debattista. He never sold any jewellery to her and she had never seen him in her life. 

She said that Mr Tabone used to tell his staff to check the identity card and ask  people to sign a declaration before any gold was bought from them. 

Lawyer Michael Sciriha appeared for Mr Tabone.