Former police chief Ray Zammit is insisting his order to remove a car from the scene of a shooting incident involving a minister’s driver was misinterpreted by police officers.

He was reacting yesterday to the leaked findings of an internal police disciplinary board that acquitted Inspector Gabriel Micallef of tampering with the scene of the crime in November last year.

Mr Micallef had driven a car with two bullet holes in it onto the police low loader before the on-site magisterial inquiry got under way and before the inspector responsible for the crime scene had yet arrived.

He was on the crime scene because the minister’s driver, Paul Sheehan, who fired the shots, was his sister’s partner.

The report, seen by the Times of Malta, quotes the testimony of a police officer who received the order from Mr Zammit, then acting police commissioner, to call in the low loader and take the car away.

Mr Micallef told the disciplinary board that he was asked by another police officer driving the low loader to help him load the car onto the vehicle. The driver of the loader told him he was acting on Mr Zammit’s orders.

However, Mr Zammit told the board that when he gave the order he had not yet been informed the victim’s car had been hit by bullets but only that warning shots had been fired.

The disciplinary board acquitted Mr Micallef but the former acting police commissioner yesterday rejected any notion the findings cast a bad light on his behaviour.

Isn’t it better if they checked how things happened? Everything is clear. They can see what happened, who gave the order, how it was given and everything else

“Isn’t it better if they checked how things happened...? Everything is clear. They can see what happened, who gave the order, how it was given and everything else,” Mr Zammit said when confronted with the findings.

When it was pointed out that the disciplinary board had reached its conclusions after evaluating the evidence before it, Mr Zammit insisted there was enough evidence for the board to reach a different conclusion.

“I did not mess anything up,” he said with reference to the words used by Mr Micallef in his testimony.

In one of the most damning statements, Mr Micallef told the disciplinary board that he believed Mr Zammit “messed it up and was trying to pin it on me”.

But Mr Zammit insisted that he never denied giving the order for the low loader to be sent on the crime scene; however, this did not imply removing the car before the necessary investigations took place.

“It does not mean that if you send a low loader everything should be removed from site... from where did we get this [interpretation]?

“As if. If there was a dead man I would have sent a hearse as well. It is normal practice to send a low loader and take the car to the police garage. But if they want to change things because I am Ray Zammit, so be it, no problem.”

Mr Zammit also denied telling Mr Micallef in a telephone call in the days following the incident that he should not have perpetuated the mistake.

Mr Micallef testified that during a phone conversation Mr Zammit had told him: “So if I made a mistake, did you have to perpetuate it?”

It does not mean that if you send a low loader everything should be removed from site

Mr Zammit yesterday denied saying those words. “If he wants to turn it this way it is up to him. I have nothing against Inspector Gabriel but if things want to be clear there are the tapes and they can listen to the recordings and confront them with the statements of the people who were on site.”

When asked whether he felt his order on the night of the incident for the low loader to be taken on site was misinterpreted, Mr Zammit answered: “I think this came out clearly even in court... if he was acquitted good luck to him. What can I do?”

The police board inquiry

What was the incident?

On November 19, Paul Sheehan, the security driver of then home affairs minister Manuel Mallia, gave chase with the ministerial car after the side mirror was clipped in a drive-by incident involving Stephen Smith.

In Gżira, an angry Mr Sheehan fired two shots towards Mr Smith’s car as he tried to flee. The bullets hit the car but were initially described in a government statement as “warning shots fired in the air”.

The car chase stopped in the tunnels beneath the University roundabout in Msida when Mr Smith’s car lost power. Mr Smith was arrested and interrogated.

It was only after the media exposed what had happened on the night that Mr Sheehan’s actions were exposed. He was later charged with the attempted murder of Mr Smith. The incident eventually led to the removal of Dr Mallia from minister and the replacement of then acting police commissioner Ray Zammit.

Who is Inspector Gabriel Micallef?

Mr Micallef’s sister is Mr Sheehan’s partner and on the night of the incident he was at home in Mosta.

His sister called him in a panic and Mr Micallef got into his private car and drove to Msida to see whether Mr Sheehan needed any help.

Mr Micallef, who was in plain clothes, arrived at the scene of the crime and was later accused of tampering with evidence when he moved Mr Smith’s car onto the police low loader.

What was Mr Micallef investigated for?

The internal police disciplinary board heard evidence in relation to the allegation that Mr Micallef interfered with the scene of the crime when he had no business being there.

The board acquitted Mr Micallef of wrongdoing, insisting he had no malicious intent when he drove the victim’s car onto the low loader.

Who gave the order for the car to be removed?

A police officer on site who took the phone call from acting police commissioner Ray Zammit testified that the order came from his boss. “Phone the police garage, bring over the low loader and the car should be taken to the police garage.”

This order was followed to the letter and when the low loader arrived the driver found Mr Micallef and asked him to help him. The car was about to be driven away when an inspector from the district police stopped it since the crime scene was subject to a magisterial inquiry and police investigation.

Mr Micallef testified that he did not know that shots had been fired in the incident when he drove the car onto the low loader. Had he known this, he claimed, he would not have moved the car.

He said he was under the impression the order for the car’s removal was issued by Mr Zammit directly.

Who led the inquiry board?

Police Assistant Commissioner Lawrence Cutajar chaired the disciplinary board. He was assisted by Assistant Commissioner Neville Aquilina and Superintendent Carmelo Bartolo. Lawyer Arthur Azzopardi was Mr Micallef’s defence counsel.