Employee admits to stealing scrap gold, ordered to repay its worth

An engineer and manager at ST Microelectronics has been ordered by Judge Anthony Ellul to refund the company over €34,000 this morning, after he admitted to 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 that took place over a period of years from his employer, ST Microelectronics.

ST Microelectronics claimed that from 2002 to 2004, Mercieca had stolen 10.58kg of scrap gold worth €120,164.

Scrap gold is a by-product of the production of electronics.

Mercieca admitted to the theft of scrap gold, but contested the amounts stolen.

During the course of the criminal proceedings, Mercieca had told the police that he had misappropriated approximately 150g of scrap gold per month, which would make a total of 3 kilos of gold stolen in the period from September 2002 to September 2004.

It emerged that there were no company records of the amount of scrap gold that was entrusted or returned by him. The court found that Mercieca's version of how much gold he taken more credible and, on that basis, calculcated that he had misappropriated three kilos of scrap gold over the period.

Using 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 remaining 40 per cent of the costs for inflating its claim.