Two people were cleared yesterday of committing fraud by issuing cheques that were not honoured.

Italian national Enzo Quarella, 39, residing in Rabat, and 26-year-old Marvic Galea, also from Rabat, were cleared of defrauding third parties of Lm350 on 2 March 2003 in Mosta.

The court, presided over by magistrate Consuelo Scerri Herrera, heard the testimony of police inspector Joseph Cordina who said that he had received a report from a certain Saverina Rosso about alleged fraud.

Mrs Rosso had claimed that Mr Quarella had purchased some Lm350 worth of paint and paid for it with a cheque that had bounced. The inspector said that the trail of evidence led him to question Mr Quarella and Ms Galea.

Ms Galea told the inspector that the signature on the cheque was her own and said she had already informed Mrs Rosso that the cheque could not be cashed at the time because she had financial difficulties. However, she did promise that payment would be forthcoming. It transpired that the couple then went to Italy for about a year and at the time that the inspector spoke to them, the money owed had yet to be paid.

Mr Quarella added that the cheque was post-dated. The inspector duly checked back with Mrs Rosso, who told him that the cheque was not post-dated. Mrs Rosso also testified and corroborated the inspector’s account of the incident. She added that she had not tampered with the document in any way.

However, after technical handwriting analysis, it turned out that the cheque in question had actually been written by Mrs Rosso. The court said that Mrs Rosso had testified that it was Enzo Quarella who had written the cheque, but once technical analysis proved otherwise, she had changed her version of events.

The court also remarked that, in the light of this turn of events, the court regarded the testimony of the accused to be more reliable than that of the complainant.

The court said that there had never been any intention to commit fraud. “However, the debt is still there, but this debt should be regarded in a civil and not criminal capacity.”

The court therefore cleared both the accused of all charges made against them.