A court has cleared two men of illegally employing an Englishman at a bar after the prosecution failed to prove its case.

Raymond Micallef and Vincent Micallef, owner and manager respectively of Huggins bar in Paceville, were charged with illegally employing Stephen Bradley on October 4, 2004.

The two men said that Mr Bradley was only there to see how the bar was run, a claim which Mr Bradley had corroborated in his police statement.

They said they were about to open another bar along the Valletta Waterfront and Mr Bradley was a business partner.

Taking the witness stand, PS Mario Ebejer said that when he walked into Huggins bar he saw Mr Bradley serving drinks and that when he spoke to him he said he was just practising the work of a barman.

Magistrate Lawrence Quintano said that, although the officer had seen Mr Bradley serving drinks, the two accused insisted that he was there just to observe the system and that he was a business partner.

The prosecution, he ruled, did not prove their case beyond reasonable doubt and he acquitted the two men.

Police Inspector Mario Haber prosecuted.

Lawyers Franco Debono and Marion Camilleri appeared for the men.