The owner of a bar in St Julian’s was today acquitted of allowing a minor at his establishment, a charge he had been found guilty of by the Magistrates’ Court.

Chequer’s Bar owner Stefan Cutajar had been fined €730 for allowing the minor to enter.

But Mr Justice David Scicluna overturned the judgement on appeal and said that although from the evidence, there was no doubt that on the day of the incident the 14-year-old had been at the bar, he had gone in to speak to his brother and had managed to enter when the bouncer was not looking.

The police, Mr Justice Scicluna said, had approached the boy because he was smoking and not because they suspected that he was under age.

Mr Justice Scicluna found Mr Cutajar not to be criminally responsible and acquitted him.