Some 200 people, who at some point worked for a cleaning company, were asked to present themselves in court this morning in relation to a case dealing with the misappropriation of social security contributions.

The managing director of the cleaning company in question, Anthony Ellul of Salamander Cleaning Services, was accused of failing to pay the social security contributions of his staff between the period between 1999 and 2007. Over the aforementioned period of time, 463 workers were engaged with the company.

In 2014, Ellul was found guilty by a court of magistrates and fined €200, as well as a €4 per day fine for each individual case from when the case concludes until the sum of money owed is paid. It is estimated that when calculating the amount of social security contributions owed, plus taxes and interest, this sum can reach somewhere in the region of €1.3 million.

An appeal has been filed, with the case now before Judge Antonio Mizzi at the Court of Appeal.

It transpires that the human resources manager Joe Falzon is responsible for the misappropriation. He admitted to the charges in separate proceedings before former Magistrate, today a Judge, Abigail Lofaro. He was fined Lm10,000 (€23,277).

In the case against Ellul, the court of Magistrates rested on the company records which were in the possession of Falzon.

Since it has been established that the records in Falzon's possession are not trustworthy, and because the social security department has no way of independently verifying the records, Mr Justice Mizzi had no other option but to individually ascertain the nature of employment of each employee with the cleaning company between 1999 and 2007.

This is necessary because by law, companies are not required to pay social security contributions for employees engaged on a part-time basis.

Therefore, the court had to independently verify the nature of employment of each employee in order to correctly ascertain how much social security, or national insurance, the company should have paid between 1999 and 20077.

In total, 260 workers have presented themselves in court, 200 this morning, 40 at a previous hearing and another 20 at a hearing before that. Another 203 workers must now testify at later hearings.

Lawyer Arthur Azzopardi is representing the appellant, Anthony Ellul.