Construction tycoon Nazareno Vassallo has been charged with perjury and presenting false documents during a civil case where he is being sued for more than €200,000.

Mr Vassallo, 61, from St Paul’s Bay, is pleading not guilty to presenting false documents, lying under oath and making a false affidavit during the case being heard by Mr Justice Joseph Zammit Mckeon.

The civil suit revolves around a contract awarded by Mr Vassallo’s company, Vassallo Builders Limited, to Avantgarde Limited, which belongs to Joseph Vella.

It is about a deal in which 60 bathrooms were installed at Mr Vassallo’s Prince of Wales home for the elderly, in Sliema.

As construction work took longer than planned, the installation of the bathrooms was delayed and Mr Vassallo terminated the contract.

He said it was this situation that led to the losses Mr Vella was claiming in the civil suit.

Before work on the installation of the bathrooms began there were weekly meetings and, on one occasion, on October 3, 2005, they agreed that work could start the following day.

Minutes of the meetings were taken but Mr Vassallo said that when he produced them in court as evidence, a sentence in one document giving the date agreed upon for the installation to begin was missing.

The case continues in September.