Stephen Agius, 32 of St Paul's Bay, was today acquitted of having made use of counterfeit banknotes and relapsing.

The court heard that he had bought a laptop from Intercomp and had been paying by instalments. On February 5, 2008, he called to pay his instalment in cash.

Sales assistant Daniela Caruana noticed that four €20 notes may be counterfeit. She phoned Mr Agius who returned to Intercomp and paid again in cash. Intercomp retained the false banknotes and filed a police report.

Magistrate Doreen Clarke in delivering judgement, said it had been confirmed that the banknotes exhibited in court were false. But it had not been sufficiently proved that the banknotes were the same ones which the accused had handed to Ms Caruana.

She had passed on the banknotes to her superior, Francis Wirth, but since Mr Wirth was not called to testify, there was no evidence that the banknotes given to the police by Mr Wirth were the same.

Mr Agius was therefore being acquitted for lack of evidence.

Dr Adrian Camilleri was defence counsel.