A police inspector suspended from the corps for allegedly leaking details about a convicted fraudster to Yorgen Fenech’s defence lawyers protested his innocence when facing criminal charges on Thursday.
Elton Taliana, 41, pleaded not guilty to computer misuse following an episode dating back to January when, police received information that data on the police computer system had been passed on to third parties.
That data concerned convicted fraudster Julian Hofstra who was serving time in a Dutch prison and was entitled to certain “privileges” on account of good conduct behind bars.
An audit check on the police system, spanning from 2018 to January 2021 showed that all searches were accounted for, except one that was linked to the Birkirkara police station, just days before the Dutch inmate allegedly received a visit from Fenech’s lawyers.