A consumer watchdog inspector who had been convicted of forging shop owners' signatures has been acquitted by an appeals court which concluded that the crime had been committed by somebody else possibly to frame him.

Sources, said that a person is expected to be arraigned in court in connection with the case.

In 2011, Alexander Zammit had been found guilty of forging the signatures of various shop owners as part of an inspection meant to ensure that all items had a price tag. Mr Zammit was sentenced to one year in jail suspended for two years, and slapped with a lifetime general interdiction.

The defendant had challenged the decision of the first court, saying that his remuneration did not depend on the number of inspections and so had no interest to fabricate signatures in a bid to increase the number of shops being surveyed.

In its decision the Appeals Court Mr Justice David Scicluna said that after a fresh analysis of the various signatures pertaining to the case, it transpired that the calligraphy did not correspond to that of Mr Zammit. Discrepancies were also noted in the dates of the forged documents, which indicated that they might have been jotted down by a third party.

Consequently, the court concluded that the first court had wrongfully convicted Mr Zammit as the charges had not been proved without reasonable doubt and declared him not guilty.

Lawyers Michael Tanti Dougall and Mario Calleja were defence counsel.