Tampered CCTV footage, threats used to intimidate Nigerian man

Nigerian national Michael Olutayo Ajibode, 37, residing at St Paul's Bay was acquitted from charges of theft after a court expert held that the evidence had been tampered with.

Ajibode was accused of stealing around €6,000 from Jason Muscat, owner of Jason's Garage in Mosta, back in August 2010.

Magistrate Audrey Demicoli acquitted Ajibode when it resulted that there was conflicting evidence and that the CCTV evidence was unreliable as evidence.

Demicoli heard Muscat testify that the accused regularly went to his garage to help around. The witness explained that he kept a black pouch with cash, cheques and other documents on a shelf but from the start of 2010, he realised that the cash was dwindling.

Keeping tabs on his expenses, he also asked his wife whether she was using the cash. When she denied taking the money, he installed CCTV cameras in his garage.

On 2 August, Muscat's wife claimed she saw Ajibode opening the pouch, while she was hiding beneath a stairwell. No CCTV camera was covering the area in question. Upon checking his pouch, Muscat discovered €130 had gone missing, and another €50 had gone missing the previous day.

On 4 August, he left the pouch deliberately empty in an area covered by the CCTV. The camera captured the accused inspecting the pouch.

When he confronted Ajibode and warned him he would take the matter to the police, the accused offer to pay him €180 and then a total of €700 in €30 installments.

Under questioning by police, Ajibode said he was working at Methode Electronics and at the time, undergoing separation procedures from his wife Lydia Mousù. But he denied stealing any money.

When the police confronted him the CCTV footage, Ajibode said he regularly handled the pouch to insert and retrieve documents from it, as instructed by Muscat. He also said that he had accepted to pay Muscat €800 under threat when Muscat and another unidentified man locked him in the garage, broke his spectacles, and even threatened they would kill him if he does not settle the payment.

He also made the same offer to Muscat in the presence of police, hoping that the threats would not be repeated.

Taking the witness stand, Ajibode told the court that Muscat's actions had been motivated by the fact that his former wife Lydia Mousù was a friend of Muscat, and that she had also lost him his job by informing Methode Electronics of his court problems.

He also alleged that the police superintendent handling the case was aware that the video footage used as evidence, had been tampered with. Court expert Dr Steven Farrugia confirmed that the CCTV footage was edited, lacking the data and time of recording and a camera number. He held that the items appearing in the footage could also be the result of editing.