A director of a local company was cleared of swindling the state coffers out of some €97,000 in VAT payments after a court found that an essential element of the alleged offence was missing.

Criminal proceedings were instituted against Carmel Spiteri as director, shareholder and company secretary of Tal-General Co. Ltd. upon the strength of a letter to prosecute issued by the department.

The letter had stemmed from a claim that the recipient had, back in 2009 and in the preceding years, failed to pay up some €97,781 collected by way of VAT.

Yet in the course of proceedings before a Magistrates’ Court, an official from the VAT Department had testified that Mr Spiteri’s company operated on an accrual basis which meant that the taxpayer was to declare all issued invoices, including those which had not yet been settled.

In view of this, the court, presided by Donatella Frendo Dimech, pronounced itself “truly perplexed and astounded by the fact that the department had issued a letter to prosecute when, in the department’s own words, the company had never been paid the relative funds.”

A crucial element for the existence of the offence as charged was the actual receipt of the money which was subsequently misappropriated, the Court observed.

In this case there was a ‘total absence of evidence that the company was ever entrusted or made a recipient of such funds’, the Court noted, adding further that the accused had diligently abided by his legal obligation to declare all invoices, even those for which he had not yet been paid.

Since an essential element of the alleged misappropriation was missing, the Court acquitted the director of the alleged wrongdoing.

Inspector Maurice Curmi prosecuted.