A man implicated in a scam to defraud a transhipment company had his acquittal confirmed on appeal on Friday.

Victor Spiteri, 80, whose job as foreman is to direct the unloading of merchandise alongside containers, was facing criminal action for fraud, falsification of documents and use thereof, and making a false declaration.

He came under investigation when Ronald Galea, a former general manager at CMA-CGM Agencies Worldwide Ltd who was being investigated for fraud, implicated Mr Spiteri in the scam.

Investigators were told that Mr Spiteri would issue fictitious invoices for works and Mr Galea would endorse the relative payment, with the sum being eventually shared equally between the two.

Police pressed charges against both suspects, with Mr Galea admitting to the scam. In 2013, Mr Spiteri was acquitted by the Magistrates’ Court, presided over by then-magistrate Carol Peralta, but the judgment was appealed by the attorney general.

In his appeal, the attorney general argued that the first court had ignored the testimony of Ronald Galea - the prosecution's key witness - and declared his claims not credible, even though he had not testified orally before magistrate Peralta.

Mr Galea had instead testified before former magistrate Jacqueline Padovani Grima, who had presided over the case before being promoted to judge.

The attorney general argued that in relying solely on transcripts and not hearing Mr Galea testify personally, the court had misinterpreted the facts of the case.

But a court of appeal, presided over by Mr Justice David Scicluna, observed that when the case was assigned to a different magistrate “the prosecution had made no request for witnesses to be re-heard.” Nor was there any reference to the matter when the prosecution made final pleadings.

Mr Justice Scicluna also observed that a cheque for Lm11,400 (€26,500) which it was claimed had been issued for fictitious works, had actually been deposited by Mr Galea, who had used it to partially pay for a pleasure boat.

This meant that the accused, Mr Spiteri, never pocketed the share of money he was allegedly owed for his involvement in the scam, the court observed.

Since there were no serious reasons to vary the discretion of the first court, the court of appeal rejected the attorney general’s appeal.

Lawyer Veronique Dalli was defence counsel.