The owner of Muddy Waters night club, Patrick Spiteri, and barman Alfred Vella were today acquitted of failing to issue VAT receipts.

VAT Inspector Jonathan Fenech said he had gone to the nightclub at about 8 p.m. on April 27 last year. There were no customers at the time. He spoke to the barman, who appeared not to know how to handle the crash register properly.

He noted that according to the cash register record, the till had been opened a few times and this led him to believe that no VAT receipts had been issued.

Defence lawyer Stefano Filletti argued that there were no customers in the bar and sometimes people came in to ask for spare change to buy cigarettes from the machine. That was why the till was open.

Magistrate Doreen Clarke acquitted the two accused for lack of evidence.

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