Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/1457526
14 maltatoday | SUNDAY • 6 MARCH 2022 NEWS FGURA GUDJA PAOLA ST. LUCIJA ĦAL TARXIEN 4 MELLIEĦA NAXXAR SAN PAWL IL-BAĦAR 12 Membru Parlamentari u Kandidat għall-Partit Laburista għar-Raba' u t-Tnax-il Distrett . MATTHEW AGIUS A fearful police sergeant had to be warned not to hold back in- formation on the witness stand as suspected kidnapper, fraud- ster and associate of Prime Min- ister Robert Abela, Christian Borg, was back in court on Mon- day, when the case in which he is charged with illegally employing foreign workers as car-washers continued before magistrate Na- dine Lia. Borg, 28, and five other men are currently the subjects of sep- arate criminal proceedings in which they stand charged with abducting, beating and threat- ening a man over a missing van. They are contesting the charges. In today's sitting, a JobsPlus representative testified to hav- ing accompanied the police on a December 2018 inspection of a garage owned by Goldcar, which was used to wash cars. Borg was a director of Goldcar at the time. The representative said he had found several workers from countries including India and Serbia working there. None of them had a work permit. Lawyer Charles Mercieca, ap- pearing for Borg in the sitting, cross-examined the witness, asking how the workers' answers to the questions put to them had been recorded. The witness re- plied that they had been taken down in writing and not audi- ovisually. "I wasn't alone, there were other people and police of- ficers present," he explained. Police sergeant warned Next to testify was a police ser- geant who had accompanied the previous witness on the inspec- tion. She had noted "around 6" for- eign nationals working at the car wash without a work permit. They were students, she said. The witness went on to say that she had been stationed at the immigration department at the time, but had since been reassigned to the traffic depart- ment. "The director was Chris- tian Borg," she said, indicating the accused. Under cross-examination, she explained that one of the work- ers had told her that he was em- ployed by Borg, although she could not remember the man's name. "They don't know the language and there were six of them. There were several people there and they all understood the name [Christian Borg]," she in- sisted. Asked how she knew they were illegal immigrants, she rebutted the lawyer's suggestion that she "assumed" it to be so, testifying that it was standard practise to ask workers for their papers and it was noted that they were sup- posed to be students. "They all said that the compa- ny's owner was Christian Borg," she repeated. Mercieca asked her how she knew Christian Borg was the owner. "Because he came to the scene." "Not true!" Borg protest- ed from the dock. The witness corrected herself, saying that he had been phoned at the scene. The magistrate asked who had dealt with Borg, whilst she was dealing with the workers. "Someone from JobsPlus," she said, explaining that there were 4 or 5 officials from the agency present at the time. But the witness became visibly uncomfortable when the mag- istrate asked her what Borg had Police sergeant warned after prevaricating on the witness stand Goldcar's Christian Borg illegally employed foreign nationals at car wash