Father and son cleared of using fake banknotes at fuel station

A court has found a father and son not guilty of using fake banknotes to procure diesel, saying that it was not convinced that the men had been aware that the notes were counterfeit.

48-year old Joseph Mary Cardona and his son Christian, 27, had been charged with defrauding a Zebbug petrol station of Lm25 (€58.23) and offences relating to the use of counterfeit money and the handling of stolen goods after they had refuelled their car using fake banknotes in June 2005.

Police Inspector Maria Stella Attard had explained to the court that the police had received a report filed by the directors of petrol station owners Falzon Limited, claiming that they had found false banknotes in their automated payment machine.

Cardona and his son had been arrested after being recognised from CCTV footage of the transaction, Cardona Snr was found to be carrying genuine Lm10 and Lm5 notes in his pocket. A search of the man's home in Siggiewi likewise found no fake bills.

The accused, who worked as a butcher, had released a statement to police in which he explained that he had used the petrol station on several occasions, including the date in question, and that he would have been carrying money with which he had been paid.

He had handed the cash to his son, who inserted the bills into the fuel dispenser, buying Lm15 of diesel for his van and then dispensing Lm10 of petrol into a jerrycan, for use with his farm's generator. Cardona insisted that he had not known that the money was counterfeit and offered to repay the amount.

Cardona also said that he had offered to repay the amount, but had been rebuffed by the company's director Joe Falzon.

In aquitting the men, magistrate Consuelo Scerri Herrera noted that the CCTV footage had never been exhibited in court. This would have made a things a lot simpler, as footage from the time that the transactions were recorded as having taken place could then have been used to definitively settle the matter.

Whilst it was clear that the bills were fake, the prosecution had failed to prove that the notes had ever been in the possession of the accused, said the court. In addition, it had seen no evidence proving that the accused had been aware of the possibility that the notes they had been handling were forgeries, which it said, precluded the criminal intent required for theft.

The court ordered that the fake banknotes which had been exhibited be handed to the forensic science laboratory.