A car dealer has been acquitted of tampering with fiscal receipts to benefit from a bigger refund to the detriment of the VAT department.

Charles Bianco, 48, from Birkirkara, as director of Western Company Ltd, was charged with having submitted two tampered VAT department receipts to claim a higher refund.

The matter came to light in the course of a routine investigation conducted by the department. Two VAT inspectors had noticed that two of the receipts had apparently been tampered with so that a €60 receipt was altered to €6,000 and a €35 receipt was made to read €8,350.

When confronted by the department, Mr Bianco had strongly denied the allegations and said that the two suspicious receipts had been handed over to him by Joseph Grima known as 'il-Vasu', a former business partner who had since absconded after running into debts totalling €1.7 million.

The court, presided by Magistrate Consuelo Scerri Herrera, observed that although the department had traced the original receipts, these documents were never produced as evidence. In fact, the criminal proceedings had been based following investigations carried out by the VAT department.

The court declared that in criminal proceedings, copies of original documents are admissible as secondary evidence only if duly authenticated. This cardinal principle could not be cast aside, the court remarked. Since the original receipts were never produced as evidence, the court could not verify the allegations of the department.

The court lamented the shortcomings of the prosecution, which instituted criminal proceedings upon a complaint by the VAT department without first collecting all necessary documents and gathering all evidence according to established legal principles so as to avoid such problems.

The court declared the accused not guilty and acquitted him of all the charges regarding the alleged fraud.

Inspector Maurice Curmi prosecuted.

Lawyers Michael and Lucio Sciriha were defence counsel.