A man who borrowed Lm4,000 from a friend 22 years ago engineered a police raid on the creditor's house as a way to avoid paying the sum back, a court has established.

Former police constable and informer Joseph Lucchese led the police to believe that a Caravaggio painting stolen from St John's Co-Cathedral was being held in the residence of his creditor Dominic Micallef ,when that was not the case.

Mr Micallef and his wife Rienee instituted court proceedings against Mr Lucchese demanding the payment of the Lm4,000 as well as damages caused to them through a frame-up with the police.

The court heard that after borrowing the Lm4,000, Mr Lucchese handed Mr Micallef three video cassette recorders and a quantity of scent and sun tan lotion as security. However those goods had previously been stolen.

The police had been led to believe by Mr Lucchese that the stolen Caravaggio was in Mr Micallef's possession. However a police search in his residence showed that was not the case.

A number of antiques were seized by the police but subsequently returned.

The court upheld all of Mr Micallef's requests, condemning Mr Lucchese to pay Mr Micallef €9,317 (the euro equivalent of Lm4,000) with interest from May 1989.

It declared Mr Lucchese guilty of having organised a frame-up and condemned him to pay damages of €698.