The Stilletto strip club where Police Sergeant Ramon Mifsud Grech was allegedly having a drink while on duty.

The police sergeant being investigated over claims he threatened and manhandled a man in Paceville on Christmas Day has a history of similar claims, having been twice probed in recent years for excessive use of force.

Ramon Mifsud Grech, 43, from Birkirkara, made the headlines over the weekend after a man allegedly took a photograph of him drinking at a striptease club while on duty.

This case bears a striking similarity with the one PS 928 was involved in when he manhandled a French student who also photographed him drinking at a Paceville nightclub in 2009.

Jean-Oliver Mesrine was slightly injured and had his digital camera smashed after he took photographs of Sgt Mifsud Grech and another two police officers drinking at a bar.

Magistrate ordered disciplinary action against him for lacking professionalism

The officers had been charged but acquitted in 2012 because of a mistake in the charge sheet, which gave the time of the incident as being 11pm when it really took place at 3am the following day. They had been arraigned again following a public outcry but the court ruled they could not be charged twice over the same crime.

A month later, the officer was back in the limelight when a magistrate ordered disciplinary action against him for “lacking professionalism” when dealing with a group of youngsters who were being loud at the McDonald’s fast-food restaurant in St Julian’s.

The police were called in and told that a customer was being loud. Once the police arrived, the customer left the premises immediately but, once outside, the matter escalated and he was rounded up by six police officers.

Magistrate Francesco Depasquale, who heard the case against the loud customer, who was charged with threatening police officers, said he was convinced excessive force had been used and demanded an investigation. In fact, a police internal inquiry singled out Sgt Mifsud Grech for action, though his sanction, if any, was never made public.

The sergeant’s name had also surfaced in December 2011 when he was named by the lawyers of suspended police inspector Jeffrey Cilia. They told a court that Sgt Mifsud Grech had twice been suspended for being drunk while on duty. Mr Cilia, whose case is still pending, stands charged with assaulting the sergeant.

The most recent case involves 30-year-old Karl Baldacchino who said he photo­graphed the uniformed officer drinking at a Paceville strip club on Christmas Day. He claims the officer confronted him and grabbed him by the neck, demanding he delete the picture. He refused, insisting it was within his rights since he was in a public place.

He reported that he was then dragged out of Stilletto by Sgt Mifsud Grech and other officers who took his mobile phone and put him in a police van. He was then released without any of his details being taken. His phone was returned without its memory card.

Mr Baldacchino filed a police report and Police Commissioner Michael Cassar has ordered an internal investigation.

Disputing Mr Baldacchino’s version of events, the officer told The Sunday Times of Malta he was called to the club to investigate a report that a man had held a knife against a person’s throat.

He insisted he was not drinking but merely talking to the victim of the alleged knife incident.

He said the club’s security officers dragged out a man who was bothering the girls and taking photographs of him when it was prohibited to do so.