What connects the daring heists that targeted HSBC and accused?

Vince Muscat is waiting for his trial appointment for his involvement in a daring heist on HSBC headquarters in 2010 that ended in a shootout with police.

But the failed hold-up was only the most audacious in a string of high profile hits carried out by the same criminal gang over the span of a few years.

In December 2010, lawyer David Gatt was charged with being the mastermind of this gang and faced accusations of criminal association in the four cases listed below.

However, Gatt was acquitted of all charges in 2017, with Magistrate Antonio Micallef Trigona casting doubt on the police’s star witness – Mario Portelli, a police officer who claimed Gatt headed the mafia-style gang.

One of the pieces of information that Portelli had volunteered to the police was that Gatt had received “ten” for advising the men who carried out the HSBC Balzan branch hold-up to deposit strands of hair in the getaway car to put investigators off track.

Gatt had been kicked out of the police force years back after former police commissioner John Rizzo accused him of cavorting with known criminals.

David Gatt: acquitted

The accusation was made after secret service phone intercepts of criminals involved in a hold-up of a G4 cash van in Birżebbuġa in 2000 had uncovered a conversation between Gatt, then a police inspector, and one of the men involved in the crime.

Eventually, Gatt won a court case for unfair dismissal and the State was ordered to reinstate him in the police force. He never re-joined the force.

Gatt had since become a lawyer and for some time practiced from a legal office belonging to former minister Chris Cardona.

Chris Cardona was arrested and interrogated over the botched HSBC hold-up in 2010, PN MP Jason Azzopardi has claimed. Cardona has denied this.

Daphne Caruana Galizia hitmen Vince Muscat and Alfred Degiorgio have implicated a former minister in the failed HSBC heist of 2010 and the journalist’s murder.

Muscat has testified in court that he used to take Degiorgio to see Cardona at the ministry. Muscat also claimed that he had once driven George Degiorgio to Portomaso for a meeting with Cardona to discuss an alleged hit on Caruana Galizia in 2015 that was later abandoned.

Cardona has described the claims as “pure evil fiction”.

The €1m heist: HSBC Balzan branch - 30 November 2007

Five, hooded and armed men entered the HSBC Bank branch in Balzan at 12:40pm at a time when it was receiving euro notes in preparation of Malta’s adoption of the single currency in January 2008. The thieves made off with €1 million.

In a carefully planned heist, the thieves used a van to block off the main street leading into the square and left in a getaway car that was later found abandoned in Fleur-de-Lys.

The €2.8m bulldozer failure: Cash van - 4 January 2010

At 9:30am, thieves used a van and a pickup to sandwich a cash van belonging to Security Service Malta Ltd in Santa Venera. The cash van was transporting about €2.8 million to the HSBC cash centre in Qormi.

The thieves then used a bulldozer to try and crash open the door of the cash van but were unsuccessful. The security personnel inside the bullet-proof van were unharmed despite several shots fired towards the vehicle.

The ambush was unsuccessful and the thieves left the scene empty-handed.

The audacious heist: HSBC HQ cash centre - 30 June 2010

At 7:45pm, three armed criminals used electronic access cards to get to the control centre where they over-powered the security guard, an employee of Security Service Malta Ltd, and a police officer on duty. At the time, employees at the cash centre would be finalising the cash desposits for the day.

However, the hold-up failed when police on patrol noticed the waiting getaway car and gave chase. Eventually, the armed robbers walked back out and a shoot-out with police ensued.

Police arrested Daren Debono, known as it-Topo, Vince Muscat, known as il-Koħħu, and Fabio Psaila after they sought medical treatment for Debono at a private clinic. Debono had been shot in the jaw during the shootout with the police.

All three are awaiting trial.

Gold rush turns bloody: Gold Market owners - 3 December 2010

At around 5:15pm, three hooded and armed persons carried out a hold-up on Michael Mizzi and his son Silvio, the owners of Gold Market. However, as one of the thieves hit the father with a shotgun butt, the son wrestled with one of the assailants, took his shotgun and fired at the criminals.

Daren Debono, it-Topo was injured and arrested on site by police. Fabio Psaila was injured but remained on the run until giving himself up on Boxing Day.

Psaila had multiple pellet wounds. In 2013, Debono was jailed for five years for the crime.