A magistrate this morning ordered the police to take action against a hairstylist who took a false oath when testifying in a civil suit involving the dismissal of a former colleague.

Robert Laiviera had been employed with Cut Coiffeur Company Limited and asked to testify about Christian Mifsud, a manager with the company, who had left one of the company's salons to open his own business.

The civil suit was instituted by the company against Mr Mifsud for breach of employment contract.

According to his first affidavit, Mr Laviera alleged that Mr Mifsud would tell customers that he was going to open his own business and even handed out his mobile phone number and sent out e-mails.

However after leaving the company, he retracted that version and said that Mr Mifsud was in fact a loyal employee and never enticed customers to go to his new shop.

Magistrate Francesco Depasquale noted that this amounted to contempt of court and said that the witness could not change his version on a whim. He ordered the police commissioner to take action against him.

In the judgment, the magistrate ordered Mr Mifsud to pay a total of €5,257 for breach of contract by leaving and for using confidential information pertaining to the company by contacting customers.