A director of Papillon caterers was yesterday charged with threatening two employees to vote for the Nationalist Party in last March's general election and telling them not to turn up for work if Labour won.

The employees, Kristylee Bezzina and Anthony Zammit, a man with a colourful criminal record who also goes by the nickname Is-Sej, said that Pierre Bartolo, 44, had told them that they would lose their jobs if they voted for the Labour Party (PL).

Mr Zammit took his allegations to PL deputy leader Anġlu Farrugia who included them in a report he compiled, listing between 100 and 200 people that said they were paid to vote for the PN. The report was presented to the Commissioner of Police but only Mr Bartolo has been charged so far.

Taking the witness stand yesterday, Dr Farrugia said he was told by Mr Zammit that the accused was buying votes for €200. People who sold their vote would have to provide proof of how they voted by taking a picture with a mobile phone.

Police Inspector Daniel Zammit said shortly after Dr Farrugia testified that Mr Zammit's vote selling agreement was made with an Edwin Cioffi, who works as a cook at one of the company's canteens at Mater Dei Hospital and not Mr Bartolo.

The point was taken up by defence lawyer Joe Giglio who argued that the only link between his client and this alleged transaction was a claim by Mr Cioffi that he was acting on behalf of Mr Bartolo.

Dr Giglio also queried Mr Zammit's credibility, pointing out that he had been fired shortly after the election when about €12,000 went missing from the canteen. The lawyer asked the officer whether the police had looked into this, raising the possibility that Mr Zammit could be cooking up a story because he was fired for legitimate reasons.

However, the police inspector said that since another officer was investigating the theft he did not feel the need to go into that line of investigation.

Ms Bezzina recounted that on Election Day she had told her boss she had lost her voting document when her handbag went missing in Paceville. Mr Bartolo called her mother to verify what had happened to the voting document.

The mother eventually searched the house and managed to find it. Her daughter was at work at the time, getting ready for the night shift but her boss drove her to the polling station after having picked up the document and "reminded" her to vote PN as she exited the car.

Dr Giglio asked what party had she been planning to vote for and she said she intended to vote PN anyway, as she in fact did.