The police were chastised by both the prosecution and the defence today in a case in which construction tycoon Zaren Vassallo was charged with perjury and presenting false documents during a civil case where he is being sued for more than €200,000.

Mr Vassallo, 61, from St Paul’s Bay, is pleading not guilty to presenting false documents, lying under oath and making a false affidavit during a case being heard by Mr Justice Joseph Zammit Mckeon.

The civil suit revolves around a contract awarded by Mr Vassallo’s company, Vassallo Builders Limited, to Avantgarde Limited, which belongs to Joseph Vella.

It is about a deal in which 60 bathrooms were installed at Mr Vassallo’s Prince of Wales home for the elderly, in Sliema.

As construction work took longer than planned, the installation of the bathrooms was delayed and Mr Vassallo terminated the contract.

He said it was this situation that led to the losses Mr Vella was claiming in the civil suit.

Lawyer Arthur Azzopardi, representing Joseph Vella, had requested the court to appoint an expert to retrieve from Mr Vassallo and his client’s computers, a particular email Mr Vassallo had sent his client.

Discussing the request today, Dr Stephen Tonna Lowell, representing Mr Vassallo said he was shocked that this had not been done during the  police investigation. He asked whether the police had abdicated their duties  and questioned why a magisterial inquiry was not carried out over this alleged perjury. He said police had decided to arraign his client so they could not continue investigating.

Joseph Giglio, who was also representing Mr Vassallo, said  the said e-mail was not sent out by Mr Vassallo but by a secretary. It was also received by a number of people and not just by Mr Vella.

Addressing magistrate Carol Peralta, Dr Azzopardi said the issue revolved around one sentence which formed part of an attachment to this e-mail, which included the minutes of a number of meetings.

Dr Giglio said it was a huge mistake that people were arraigned based on a police report and hoped the situation would change in his lifetime. The defence, he said, were not even certain as to what they were supposed to be defending - perjury over an e-mail or something more?

How could the accused be interrogated and charged over an e-mail for alleged perjury only to come to court and requests were made  for the client’s computers to be retrieved, he asked.

Dr Tonna Lowell said the charges had such a wide-ranging date that they included the years and months previous to 2013.

Dr Azzopardi said that after listening to what the defence lawyers had to say, he also found himself preoccupied because he had filed the criminal complaint against Mr Vassallo in 2010.

The case was postponed to October 7.