A man has been cleared of a string of thefts from service stations as he could not be identified from the CCTV footage.
One service station owner told the court that his CCTV showed the thief, who arrived in a Jaguar X, was pale and thin and wearing a hoodie, jacket and black tracksuit bottoms. He would break into the cash machines and coin-operated tyre inflator machines while an accomplice would sit behind the wheel.
Last February, police inspectors Elton Taliana and Roderick Agius charged 31-year-old Wayne Falzon Birkirkara with five night time robberies from service stations between January 19 and 31. He was also accused of five counts of criminal damage, as well as being accused of breaching a probation order and a separate suspended sentence.
Nearly €1,800 in cash had been stolen and over €4,000 worth of damage caused to the service stations targeted. From the outset, Magistrate Donatella Frendo Dimech had also observed that the CCTV footage did not show the face of the thief, who police said, they had identified “from his gait.” A court expert appointed to examine the footage was also unable to identify the person filmed.
Mr Falzon explained to the court that his father had bought him the Jaguar but less than a month later – on January 7 - he had sold it because of the high insurance and road licence costs. However, the transfer to the new owner, Gilbert Busuttil, could not be completed because of nearly €1,000 in pending unpaid fines.
“The police came home and took clothes, shoes and nothing matched; I gave them my fingerprints and they are not going to find anything because it wasn't me who would be with him. Why would I go to rob some place with a car that I know is registered in my name with its number plate visible?”
Mr Busuttil had been prosecuted separately, found guilty and sentenced to 54 months in prison, but the prosecution failed to summon him as a witness in this case. In the absence of Mr Busuttil's testimony, the court said, there was no evidence that contradicted Mr Falzon's version and was declared not guilty.
Lawyer David Gatt was defence counsel.