Fenech, 46 from St Julian’s, Christopher Cutajar, 27, from Birkirkara and Roderic Tanti, 32, from San Gwann, were charged with receiving 400 boxes of illegally imported alcohol, defrauding the Maltese government and evading taxes.

On 26 December 2000, the police caught the three men unloading the illegal merchandise into a garage in Iklin.

Tanti had a contact in Italy named Alfredo who had told him he could bring alcohol to Malta without paying duty. He said he had had money problems and made arrangements to illegally import vodka and whisky with his old friend Fenech, who was going to pay some money for this to succeed.

In his first statement, Cutajar denied his involvement, but later admitted Tanti had told him about the deal. He said he eventually drove the truck that took the merchandise to the Iklin garage where the police found them.

It was Cutajar who got the merchandise through Customs without it being declared and without them paying duty on it.

Fenech said Tanti had approached him to take part in the crime. He said he forked out Lm8,000 and would have made Lm4,000 from the venture.

The court found the men guilty of the charges pressed against them. The men were also each ordered to pay a Lm20,540 fine, which is the amount of money they avoided paying in taxes by importing the alcohol illegally. The court was presided over by magistrate Miriam Hayman while inspector Joseph Cordina prosecuted.