Witness’s credibility imperils case against alleged heist mastermind

The criminal case against lawyer and former police inspector David Gatt - accused of masterminding the failed HSBC heist in Qormi back in 2010, as well as the €1 million Balzan HSBC bank robbery of 2007, a failed heist on a security van carrying €2.8 million in cash in 2009, and the attempted hold-up on a jeweller in Attard in December 2010 - may be jeopardized over the credibility of 'star witness' Mario Portelli.

PC 99 Mario Portelli's testimony is the prosecution's main plank in the case against David Gatt, a former police inspector whose removal from the force was found to have been illegal in a separate case.

Since then Gatt has been a practicing lawyer, but in 2010 was arrested as the alleged mastermind of the HSBC heist, with Portelli claiming that the self-styled 'mafia don' had tried to rope him into his gang.

Read more in today's edition of MaltaToday on Sunday