Two Malta Maritime Authority employees, who had been suspended from service pending the criminal proceedings against them, were charged yesterday with accepting bribes to issue false nautical licences to an estimated 450 people.

Sixty-year-old Fgura resident John Farrugia, who works as a small ships administrator at the Malta Maritime Authority, and Ivan Muscat, a 30-year-old MMA clerk from Zurrieq, pleaded not guilty to charges related to accepting bribes to issue false nautical licences and forging documents in June and the preceding months.

The two men were also charged with forging documents of the Malta College for Arts, Science and Technology and defrauding the college, misappropriating funds, maliciously using false documents and committing a crime they were duty bound to prevent.

Police Inspector Ian Abdilla, who was fined Lm50 for contempt of court after arriving one hour late, told magistrate Silvio Meli that the police had been investigating this case for more than one month. He said the investigations had resulted in around 450 licences being identified as false. During the investigations, he said, the police had spoken to all the people who had obtained these licences. All of them, apart from around 10, had admitted their involvement and told the police they had paid for a false licence. He said that criminal proceedings will be instigated against these people in due course.

While they were being questioned, the police inspector said, the two men had cooperated and had explained in detail how the operation had been conducted.

Magistrate Meli said that, due to the gravity of the case, the court was turning down the accused’s request for bail. They were remanded in custody, although the court was informed that Mr Muscat’s wife is in an advanced stage of pregnancy.

Police Inspector Ian Abdilla prosecuted. Dr Anglu Farrugia appeared for Mr Muscat while Dr Michael Sciriha and Dr Franco Galea represented Mr Farrugia.