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maltatoday, WEDNESDAY, 8 OCTOBER 2014 News 6 MATTHEW AGIUS A jury yesterday listened to a police constable describing the shootout that took place between police and robbers in the 1996 botched hold-up of the St Andrews branch of Mid Med Bank. Edward Falzon, at the time a consta- ble in the mobile squad, said the per- son "who shot at me, at my face, stared at me and in cold blood fired at me." He described the person who shot at him as having "cold eyes." Witnesses testified that they saw two, to no more than three armed persons doing the hold up. Falzon told the court that the first robber who came out of the bank jumped into a waiting van's empty driver's seat. "One of the men looked straight at me and fired a shot with the re- volver… I remember seeing a flame coming out of the barrel. We returned fire. With the third shot we heard a cry of pain. The one who was shot was stockily built, so he had to be helped by another robber. We hit him too. The stocky man stumbled and dropped his shotgun." Also testifying with Falzon in the trial of George Xuereb, accused of taking part in the failed hold-up, was PC Emmanuel Cilia. Falzon said "the van had a side door open and we could see inside. There was no one inside the van. Three peo- ple left the bank. The shot fired in my direction was the first one that was fired. We had shouted out 'Pulizija! Freeze!'. We tried to give the impres- sion that there were more police on the scene, but there were only two of us." "So they fired first?" Mr Justice Michael Mallia, presiding, asked. "Yes," replied Falzon. "One of the robbers dropped his shotgun on the floor in the confusion. I thank the Lord that they shot at me with the revolver, not the shotgun." Asked if there were any warning shots fired, Falzon said, "I didn't fire a warning shot. I don't know what my colleague did, but I didn't. I was not aiming for the upper body… you have to always safeguard the lives of every- one, even those who make mistakes." The prosecution did their best to sow doubt in the minds of the jurors that perhaps Falzon could not see a fourth person, but Falzon was ada- mant. "If there was someone in the driving seat, ready to make a getaway, I would have been able to see him. To not see him, he would have to have been in the back of the van lying down. "The van sped off in the direction of St Julians, but we had expended all our ammunition. We gave chase with the car. The van hit a car carry- ing tourists, who blocked the road and this delayed us, as we had to explain to them that the priority at that time was to apprehend the robbers. "Common sense told me that who- ever wanted to escape would drive in a straight line and so I went via the St. Andrews tunnel, but we soon realised that they had not taken this route. When we realised this, we returned to the bank. "You have to realise that my expla- nation takes much longer than the actual happening… it all occurred in a matter of seconds". The court also heard a harrowing statement by Joseph Sapiano, at the time the manager of the bank. "An armed man, of average height and build, wearing a mask with eye- holes, came into my office. He put a revolver to my ear and ordered me to open the vault. As we reached the vault, the person escorting me ex- pected me to open it but I did not have the keys. He then said that he was go- ing to kill me and I heard the revolver click. "I passed out. When I regained con- sciousness, he had gone. I later found out that there was around Lm100,000 (about €233,000) in the vault that day." Major Paul Barrett, now retired, ex- plained how he was going to visit his mother-in-law in Gzira on the day of the hold up. "As I was being driven, a van crashed into the car in front of us. We stopped to help the persons in the car. The driver of the van was wearing a stock- ing on his face. I couldn't recognise him at all." On his part, John Zammit, manager of the bank's security department in 1996, recounted how he had arrived after the hold-up attempt and had passed on the VCR of the security cameras to then police commissioner John Rizzo. At the time, no cameras were al- lowed inside as there was no agree- ment with the union to record staff inside. Zammit explained that the CCTV system in place in 1996 used a "720 speed" camera that would only record single frames at regular intervals, not continuously, to pre- serve storage space on the VCR. The tape is now unserviceable and cannot be played, however some still images from the tapes had previously been recovered. Owen Bugeja, who worked at the bank as a clerk in 1996, told the jury how at the time of the hold-up he was serving people at the counter and went to make some photocopies. On his way back, he "saw an aggres- sor jumping on a policeman with the weapon in his hand." and ran upstairs to join his colleagues on the first floor. From the window, he saw a white van outside the branch. It appeared to be empty – there seemed to be no one in it. One man described his horror at finding himself with his wife in the middle of a hold-up. Nurse Mark Vella gave an account of how he had gone to the bank with his wife to withdraw money for a trip to the US. He heard a commotion and, on turning round, saw two masked people wearing boil- er suits. He then lay face down on the ground, trying to shield his wife with his body. "At the time I was in shock" he said. "I do not remember clearly what happened". Paul Azzopardi, who worked as a deliveryman at the time, testified that he heard his van being started while he was inside a store in Paola. "I did not see any faces. It was raining." The stolen van, minus the company logo and with a different number plate, was later used in the hold-up. Azzopardi identified the van as the one used in the heist, saying that he recognised it from the air freshener that was hang- ing over the dashboard. Police used all their ammunition in 1996 shootout with bank robbers Employee admits to stealing scrap gold, ordered to repay its worth MATTHEW AGIUS AN engineer and manager at ST Microelectronics was yesterday or- dered by Mr Justice Anthony Ellul to refund the company over €34,000, after he admitted stealing scrap gold from his place of work. The amount is much less than the amount claimed by his employer. Daniel Mercieca stood accused of a string of thefts over two years from his employer, ST Microelectronics. The company claimed that from 2002 to 2004, Mercieca had sto- len 10.58kg of scrap gold worth €120,164. Scrap gold is a by-product of the production of electronics. Mercieca admitted the theft, but contested the amounts mentioned. During the course of the criminal investigations, Mercieca had told the police that he had misappropri- ated approximately 150g of scrap gold per month, which would make a total of 3kgs of gold stolen in the period from September 2002 to Sep- tember 2004. It emerged that there were no com- pany records of the amount of scrap gold that was entrusted or returned by him. The court found that Mer- cieca's version of how much gold he had taken was more credible and, on that basis, calculated that he had misappropriated three kilos of scrap gold over the period. Basing the value on 2004 prices, the gold was worth €34,161.88. Mercieca was ordered to pay €34,161.88 together with 60 per cent of the costs of the case. In an unusual move, the court ordered ST Microelectronics to pay the remain- ing 40 per cent of the case costs for inflating its claim. Prostitute gets three years for stealing client's wallet MATTHEW AGIUS A 27-year-old prostitute from Marsa was sentenced to three years in prison after being found guilty of stealing a wallet from one of her regular customers, and loitering with intent. The court heard that the vic- tim would regularly pay to "ad- mire the naked body" of the woman, Donna Camilleri. Tes- tif ying in court before Magis- trate Aaron Bugeja, the victim said he had picked Camilleri up from Marsa on 7 September last year and, after they had agreed on the price of €20, drove to the industrial area of the town. Once there, he first asked to have sex with the woman but changed his mind when she demanded more money. "At one point a man appeared and grabbed me by my throat de- manding more money," he said. Camilleri, who was in the car with him at the time, took his wallet. The victim said that he did not know who stole the wallet and did not recognise Kyle Mifsud, allegedly Camilleri's partner. Mifsud was charged with com- plicity in theft, but was found not guilty due to lack of evi- dence. Camilleri claimed that Mifsud had taken the money and that the victim and she had had in- tercourse. When she was initially charged with the theft, a year ago, she was prepared to admit the charges, but changed her mind after consulting her law yer, Lu- ciano Busuttil. She claimed that this was due to the fact that the magistrate she was arraigned before, Con- suelo Scerri Herrera, had told her that she had no option but to sentence her to jail. The two were also found not guilty of assault. Inspectors Robert Vella and Fabian Fleri prosecuted.