A man and a woman have been cleared of defrauding a shop owner, by paying for Lm350 worth of paint with a bounced cheque, after a magistrate ruled that they had not acted with the intention to deceive anyone.

Italian national Enzo Quarella, 40, and Marvic Galea, 27, both of Rabat had been charged with defrauding the shop owner in March 2003.

Magistrate Consuelo Scerri Herrera heard how Saverina Rosso, who owned a paint shop, filed a police report claiming that Mr Quarella bought Lm350 worth of paint from her shop. She claimed that he paid with a cheque, issued on Ms Galea's name, but the cheque could not be cashed.

After hearing several witnesses, the magistrate found that it resulted that Ms Galea had signed a blank cheque and given it to Mr Quarella to pay the paint. When he went to Ms Rosso's shop, Ms Rosso filled in the cheque.

It also resulted that Mr Quarella had explained to Ms Rosso that there was no money in the account and he was giving her the cheque as a guarantee and planned to pay her in cash at a later stage. In fact, the magistrate noted, Ms Rosso had filled in the cheque and post-dated it.

On examining the evidence and relative case law, the magistrate ruled that it did not result that Mr Quarella and Ms Galea had acted to deceive Ms Rosso.

This meant that the element of the crime, that is fraud, had not been proven and she cleared the two of all charges.

Police Inspector Joseph Cordina prosecuted.