A man who allegedly handed €27,852 to a colleague in order to prevent his wife from getting them has failed to recover the money after his friend passed away.

Carmelo Vella claimed in court that he handed the money to Henry Coleiro, who like him worked as a security officer at the GWU.

He asked him to keep the money for him for a short while in November 2007.

Mr Vella claimed that at the time he had marital problems and Mr Coleiro offered to keep the money for him so that Mrs Vella would not have access it. Mr Coleiro then suggested it should be his sister Stefania Schembri Coleiro who should actually keep the money.

Mr Coleiro died suddenly in March 2009.

Mr Vella then asked Stefania Schembri Coleiro to hand him the money, but she refused, denying that he had ever handed her any money.

The court observed that in terms of the law, whoever made the claim had to prove it. In this case Mr Vella had failed to prove his claims.

The case was therefore dismissed.