A magistrate has awarded four nurses' union officials €11,500 between them after ruling that a story carried in The Sunday Times was libellous in their regard.

Magistrate Francesco Depasquale ruled that The Sunday Times' journalist Ariadne Massa defamed the members of the union executive when she reported that a "top MUMN official" was being investigated in a scam swindling patients.

It was not contested that the man being investigated over his involvement in the scam was the chairman of the MUMN Mater Dei Hospital group committee.

However, the magistrate ruled that the use of the term "top official" was "intended to cause harm" and, therefore, ordered the journalist and the newspaper to pay €3,000 each to union president Paul Pace and general secretary Colin Galea and €2,000 each to vice president Maria Cutajar and financial secretary George Saliba.

Moreover, the magistrate ordered the newspaper's editor to pay the four a total of €1,500 for "failing to verify" the work of a member of his team.

The case was over an article that appeared in the newspaper on August 22, 2010, entitled Patients Swindled In Scam – Top MUMN Official Investigated.

The article reported that a nurse and a salesman had swindled vulnerable patients out of hundreds of euros by offering therapy not provided by the State and leading them to believe it was free.

The story quoted from an internal inquiry commissioned by the Health Ministry, which was handed over to the Police Commissioner for further investigation.

The Sunday Times reported that the nurse involved was employed in a managerial position at Mater Dei Hospital and occupied a "top post" within the structures of the MUMN.

However, Magistrate Depasquale ruled that the court "could almost conclude that there was collusion between the journalist and the Health Ministry against MUMN".

He noted that, at the time, there was a dispute between the union and the ministry and that the article was "malicious", leaving the court with no option but to "censure such journalism".

The magistrate rejected the newspaper's arguments that a person heading a sub-committee could be considered a top official within the MUMN and also that – even though the journalist knew the identity of the subject and was aware that he was not one of the MUMN's executive members – no one could be identified in the story.

The Sunday Times is to file a vigorous appeal against the decision.