Two police officers have been cleared of fraud-related charges in separate but linked cases following an investigation into alleged overtime abuse during the Marsa Junction construction.

Alessio Spiteri, then a police constable, and Fabian Caruana, then a police sergeant, were both acquitted. The court found that the prosecution had failed to prove their participation in an alleged scheme through which traffic officers were paid for overtime duties they had not performed.

The cases formed part of wider criminal proceedings brought against Traffic Section officers following anonymous information in 2020, alleging irregularities within the unit.The allegations centred primarily on paid extra duties connected to the Marsa Junction project, where Transport Malta and Infrastructure Malta required police assistance to manage traffic. Investigators alleged that officers listed for extra duty were sometimes not present in the Marsa area, while colleagues working their ordinary shifts covered the work, with the officers assigned to the extra duty allegedly still receiving payment.

The wider investigation also concerned allegations of fuel theft and other irregularities, while more than 30 officers came under scrutiny. Investigators identified Sergeant Norman Xuereb as the mastermind behind the overtime scheme. Xuereb was subsequently convicted in separate proceedings in June and jailed for five years. He was found guilty of fraud, making false declarations and committing offences which, as a police officer, he was duty-bound to prevent. He was also permanently disqualified from holding public office and ordered to forfeit €53,000.

Spiteri and Caruana were eventually charged with complicity in fraud and fraudulent gain, complicity in making or using false declarations to a public authority, and committing as public officers, offences which they were duty-bound to prevent. Spiteri's charges concerned August to November 2019, while Caruana's covered 2018 and 2019.

Infrastructure Malta said it suffered no loss

A central issue was whether the alleged conduct had caused the financial loss required to establish fraud. Former Infrastructure Malta CEO Frederick Azzopardi told the court that police assistance was required for traffic management during the Marsa project. This included road closures and roaming duties allowing officers to respond quickly to collisions and congestion.

There had been occasions when officers were not found where they were expected to be, but Azzopardi was clear that Infrastructure Malta had ultimately received the service it paid for.

He said the agency had no reason to seek reimbursement and did not consider itself to have suffered damage simply because one officer rather than another had provided the service. The court found that the prosecution had failed to establish the patrimonial loss necessary to sustain the fraud charges.

€4,840 allegedly received by Caruana

In Caruana's case, investigators calculated that he had improperly received €4,840. The prosecution relied heavily on a comparison between his duty rosters and the geolocation of his mobile phone. Investigators argued that when Caruana was listed for Transport Malta extra duty in Marsa, his phone was located elsewhere, including in Mqabba, Kirkop and Żurrieq. Consequently, the prosecution argued this showed he was not carrying out his duty. But the court identified problems with that reasoning.

The officer who carried out the comparison had worked from an Excel sheet, but the underlying spreadsheet was never produced in evidence, leaving the court unable to verify how particular payments had been classified as fraudulent. Evidence also showed that the officer's duties involved a roaming element, meaning motorcycle officers could patrol a wider area and could be sent elsewhere to deal with emergencies regardless of what was written on their original detail. The court therefore rejected the assumption that Caruana's mobile phone being outside Marsa necessarily meant he had abandoned his duty.

Around 229 invoices relating to voluntary extra duties were also presented, but none bore Caruana's signature. The court found no evidence that he had conspired with other officers to avoid duties or that he had communicated with Xuereb in furtherance of the alleged scheme. It stressed that complicity required proof of a common design between the accused and the person committing the offence; evidence which was missing in Caruana's case.

Spiteri admitted not attending some extra duties

Spiteri's case differed in that he told investigators he did not want to perform extra duties and had informed the officer responsible for the roster. He said personnel shortages meant he continued to be assigned extra duties despite asking not to be placed on them and admitted that when he saw an extra duty on his detail, he would not attend. The court said that this did not establish fraud. There was no evidence Spiteri had concealed his refusal, falsely claimed to have attended the duties or entered into an agreement with other officers to receive money fraudulently.

The court said his conduct could potentially have amounted to disobedience or negligence warranting internal disciplinary proceedings, but this did not prove that he knowingly participated in a fraudulent scheme.

As with Caruana, no evidence linked Spiteri to the invoices or false declarations allegedly used to obtain payment.

The court consequently acquitted both men after finding that the prosecution had failed to prove its case beyond reasonable doubt.

Court criticises delays

The court also criticised delays in both proceedings, particularly the prosecution's repeated attempts to call Norman Xuereb as a witness while he was himself facing related criminal proceedings. The court had warned in February 2024 that continuing to wait for him risked breaching the requirement that criminal proceedings be concluded within a reasonable time. On 25 March 2026, the prosecution's evidence in both cases was eventually declared closed after more than two years had passed without further evidence being produced.

Magistrate Donatella Frendo Dimech also warned that prosecutors must carefully assess the evidence before instituting criminal proceedings, stressing that "not every suspicious or potentially abusive act amounts to a criminal offence".

Referring to a 2024 appeal judgment involving another police officer prosecuted over the same alleged scheme, the court stressed the lasting personal and professional consequences criminal proceedings can have on an accused person, regardless of the eventual outcome.

Magistrate Donatella Frendo Dimech presided over both cases.