Yet another traffic police officer has been acquitted of charges linked to the Marsa Junction overtime fraud scandal, with the court once again finding that the prosecution failed to prove its case beyond reasonable doubt.
Sergeant Jean Paul Formosa was cleared of all charges on Monday 2 November, just four weeks after fellow officers Alessio Spiteri and Fabian Caruana.
The three acquittals follow a wider investigation into overtime abuse within the police Traffic Section, which saw more than 30 officers come under scrutiny.
Several traffic police officers were charged July 2020, with complicity in the racket in which illicit financial gains were allegedly made at the expense of the police corps, Infrastructure Malta and/or Transport Malta.
Investigators alleged that officers assigned to manage traffic during the Marsa Junction project were being paid despite failing to attend their designated duties, with colleagues covering their work.
Formosa had been charged with complicity in fraud and false declarations over allegations that he received €3,807.13 for extra duties he had not performed during 2019.
The prosecution relied heavily on mobile-phone location data suggesting that Formosa was elsewhere, including in Qawra, when he was supposedly assigned to duties around Marsa.
The court identified serious shortcomings in the evidence, particularly the investigators' reliance on duty rosters that did not necessarily reflect officers' actual assignments.
Evidence showed that the original rosters sent to the police control room were frequently amended by hand to accommodate emergencies, changing traffic conditions or requests for assistance elsewhere.
The updated rosters were never even presented in court, raising doubts about whether investigators had compared Formosa's location against the correct assignments.
The magistrate also criticised a document containing the prosecution's comparison of duty rosters and location data, describing it as almost illegible and of little assistance in establishing the truth.
Further weaknesses emerged from the motorcycle tracking system. Of the 27 motorcycles examined, only four consistently transmitted location data, while Formosa's motorcycle had its tracker disconnected.
Also, no evidence was found that Formosa had communicated with Sergeant Norman Xuereb, identified by investigators as the mastermind behind the scheme, or that he had knowingly participated in arrangements to obtain fraudulent payments. Nor had prosecutors established that Formosa had personally submitted false information or requested payments for duties he had not performed.
In June, Norman Xuereb was jailed for five years after being found guilty of fraud and related offences connected to the overtime racket.
Infrastructure Malta suffered no financial loss
Former Infrastructure Malta CEO Frederick Azzopardi testified that the agency had received the traffic-management services it paid for, despite occasional instances where officers were not stationed at their expected locations. The court therefore found that the prosecution had failed to establish the financial damage necessary to sustain the fraud charges.
In her ruling, Magistrate Frendo Dimech also identified serious deficiencies in supervision and monitoring within the Traffic Section, warning that these may have created a laissez-faire (let people do as they choose) environment in which officers felt free to rearrange their duties without informing those responsible.
The magistrate also warned prosecutors to carefully assess evidence before bringing criminal charges, highlighting the lasting consequences proceedings can have on accused individuals, even when they are eventually acquitted.
The ruling follows the October acquittals of Alessio Spiteri and Fabian Caruana as well as those of Anthony Dimech and Alexander Sellar in May 2025. Matthew Azzopardi and Francis Larry Sciberras were also acquitted in January 2024, bringing the number of confirmed acquittals in the overtime fraud scandal to at least seven.
Defence lawyer Nicholas Mifsud assisted Formosa.
Magistrate Donatella Frendo Dimech presided over the case.
Inspector Andy Rotin assisted the prosecution.