A judge has ordered an insurance firm to honour a claim lodged by its client over the theft of his Sunseeker cabin cruiser.

The firm had refused to settle the claim because it had suspicions that it was a case of insurance fraud.

Mr Justice Lawrence Mintoff ordered Gasan Mamo Insurance Agency Ltd to pay Anthony Baldacchino €23,300 over a claim he filed when his Sunseeker boat went missing from the Msida yacht marina in 2000.

The court heard how the insurance company had refused to honour the claim because it believed that this was a case of insurance fraud.

It said Mr Baldacchino had failed to prove his claim, that information was missing and that it did not believe his case was genuine.

The court heard how the insurance company had told the man it would wait for the police report before proceeding. Two days later, he was arrested and questioned by the police about the boat’s disappearance.

Mr Baldacchino had bought the boat from Joseph Conti. The boat immediately developed engine trouble during the test drive and yet more engine trouble a year later. A week before it went missing, the boat was undergoing maintenance.

Gasan Mamo Insurance General Manager, Leslie Causon, told the court that Rein Caruana, the Executive Manager at the insurance broker, had told him that he received an anonymous call from a man claiming he was instructed to steal or set fire to the boat. However, Mr Caruana had denied this.

The insurance company further told the court that Mr Baldacchino’s brother, Paul, told it that the boat had not really been stolen and was being kept in a garage in Qormi.

Mr Justice Mintoff also heard that the police had investigated Anthony Baldacchino but found no evidence of insurance fraud. The company had also hired a private investigator to look into the matter.

In his ruling, Mr Justice Mintoff said that if the company was claiming insurance fraud, it had to prove it. Moreover, the court said Paul Baldacchino was not a credible witness, especially since the two brothers were not speaking to each other.

The court noted that Paul Baldacchino was acting out of anger and revenge after his brother had reported his son for alleged theft some years before.

The court said Anthony Baldacchino’s claim should not have been dismissed solely on the information given by an unreliable witness, especially when the police had found no wrongdoing. It therefore ordered the company to honour the claim and ordered it to pay Mr Baldacchino €23,300.