Daniel Mercieca admitted stealing scrap gold from ST Microelectronics (Malta) Ltd. Photo: Darrin Zammit Lupi

An engineer who admitted stealing scrap gold from ST Microelectronics (Malta) Ltd was ordered to refund the company more than €34,000.

Mr Justice Anthony Ellul, sitting in the First Hall of the Civil Court, was informed by the company that Daniel Mercieca had been employed as an engineer and manager on what were known as PBGA and TQFP Optical production lines.

It accused Mr Mercieca of stealing 10.58 kilos of scrap gold, a by-product of the two production lines, in 2002, 2003 and 2004. This gold was valued at €120,164.

According to ST Microelectronics, Mr Mercieca had admitted to taking scrap gold but had not such a large quantity.

The company asked the court to order Mr Mercieca to pay it €120,164 by way of damages.

Mr Mercieca said it was true he had taken 1.5 kilos of scrap gold but no more.

The court heard that the company had based its submissions on the computations made by KPMG AG of Zurich, which had been engaged to establish the quantity of stolen scrap gold.

In the criminal proceedings against him, Mr Mercieca had told the police he had misappropriated about 150 grammes of scrap gold a month. That meant he had taken a total of three kilos in the period between September 2002 and September 2004.

The court noted there was no record of the amount of gold scrap allocated to Mr Mercieca or of the amount he had returned to the stores.

The court accepted Mr Mercieca’s version of how much scrap gold had been taken, that is three kilos over a period of 78 weeks. In 2004, that was worth €34,161.88.

Apart from settling that amount, Mr Mercieca was also ordered to pay 60 per cent of the litigation expenses, with the company paying the remaining 40 per cent.