A court heard this morning how it was "common practice" for police officers to share passwords among those who did not have one, so these would be able to work and file in the reports system.
Police IT Section Inspector Pierre Minuti explained how out of the 2,155 members of the police force, only 1,816 had a password to access the system. The 339 who did not have a password could include police officers who did not require the report system such as cleaners, those working with the maintenance team and the cavalry section, among others.
He was testifying during the compilation of evidence against Police Sergeant Leeroy Balzan, who is charged with deleting the first four paragraphs of the police incident report on the November 19 incident involving police constable Paul Sheehan, the driver of former Home Affairs Minister Manuel Mallia, who is separately charged with shooting at a man who drove off after crashing into the ministerial car, damaging its side mirror..
Mr Balzan, 31 from Sliema, stands charged with crimes related to computer misuse.
More specifically, he is accused of preventing the input of data, changing, deleting or adding official data, revealing a password to give access to official files to unauthorised people, committing crimes that were damaging to a government function, doing something to prejudice his superior and committing a crime he was duty bound to prevent.
The crimes are alleged to have taken place on November 22 between 1pm and 2pm at the Sliema police station.
Police Inspector Jonathan Ransley, stationed at the Sliema police station, said he knew of specific cases where police officers gave their passwords to other officers who had not yet been given one by the IT section.
Inspector Ransley explained that not all officers working in police stations had access to the system and how their colleagues would give them their own password to be able to input police reports into the system.
He replied in the negative when asked by Police Inspector Sandro Camilleri, prosecuting, whether he investigated the sharing of passwords once he knew it was a crime which carried a maximum punishment of 10 years' imprisonment.
During today's sitting, the court heard Police Inspector Graziella Muscat, from the police media relations unit, explain how that day she had called the Sliema police station for someone to check the police report on the shooting and confirm whether there were any names on the detainee list. This corroborated the version given to investigators by Mr Balzan.
Police Inspector Jesmond Micallef explained how he had started investigating the case when attention was drawn to the fact that the first four paragraphs of the police report on the shooting incident had been deleted. He said that according to preliminary investigations, the deletion took place when PS Balzan was logged into the system.
He said he had analysed CCTV footage from shops around the Sliema station and saw two officers walking out of the station at the time. One got into the car and left while the other was walking towards where he knew PS Balzan lived.
Under cross examination, he said the stature of one of the officers was "similar" to that of PS Balzan and how the person in the footage even had PS Balzan's gait. However, he said he could not be certain that it was him.
Inspector Micallef said he had gone to Attorney General Peter Grech for a legal opinion on the investigations and what had been established and whether the police should take disciplinary action or proceed with criminal action. He also confirmed that the AG had not watched the footage.
He said Dr Grech suggested that the police should take criminal action and an arrest warrant was requested and obtained from the court.
At the end of today's court sitting, Magistrate Doreen Clarke ruled that there was enough prima facie evidence for PS Balzan to be indicted over the charges brought against him.
Inspectors Camilleri and Micallef prosecuted while lawyers Franco Debono and Marion Camilleri appeared for PS Balzan.