A former police inspector-turned-lawyer has been acquitted of involvement in a number of armed robberies.

Judgement in the case against David Gatt was handed down this afternoon by Magistrate Antonio Micallef Trigona.

Dr Gatt had been charged with a string of offences, including the €1 million heist from the Balzan HSBC branch in 2007, three failed robbery attempts on armoured vans, an attempted robbery at the HSBC HQ in Qormi in 2010, which turned into a shootout with police, and a failed hold-up on an Attard jewellery shop later that same year. He had also been charged with complicity in holding people against their will and helping people who were wanted by the police.

Magistrate Micallef Trigona said the testimony of former police constable Mario Portelli, who was the main witness in the case, was not credible.

The testimony of PC99, the Magistrate said, was entirely unbelievable. It not only came from a person who gave the impression of self-exaltation and pride but was also contradicted by facts. The former policemen, who has since been boarded out of the force on medical grounds, had claimed that Gatt had performed a mafia-style initiation rite on him, and that the inspector had once held a gun to his head.

Lawyers Joe Giglio and Edward Gatt appeared for David Gatt.