Police vs Camilleri — Yacht Captain's Unpaid Overtime Claim Fails

Director acquitted of failing to pay €9,922 in overtime and leave to a yacht captain after prosecution could not prove hours actually worked.

Court of Magistrates (Malta) as a Court of Criminal Judicature · Magistrate Dr. Donatella Frendo Dimech LL.D., Mag. Jur. (Int. Law) · 29 April 2026

Anton Camilleri, director of AC Enterprises Limited and Garnet Investments Limited, was charged with failing to pay his employee Jonathan Portelli — employed as a yacht captain — a total of €9,922.24 in unpaid overtime and accumulated vacation leave covering the period July to November 2023. The prosecution alleged that Portelli worked weekends and holidays without receiving overtime pay of €8,304.00, and was also owed €1,618.24 in unused vacation leave upon termination. Portelli was employed from 1 July 2023 and was terminated by the employer during his probationary period on 2 November 2023. His contract, signed with AC Enterprises Ltd., specified that he was to work flexibly from Monday to Sunday during the high season (May–October), with compensation leave and time-off to be taken during the winter off-season (November–April). The key legal issue was whether Portelli was owed additional remuneration given that his employment ended before he could avail himself of the compensatory time-off. The court examined the payslips covering all months of employment, which consistently showed 173.33 hours per month — the standard full-time figure — with no overtime recorded. Crucially, no timesheets or independent records were kept by Portelli to substantiate his claim of excess hours. The email Portelli sent on 3 November 2023 when resigning referenced only 'rest of the pay' with no mention of overtime or leave entitlements, and he signed a receipt for the final cash payment without objection. The court also noted inconsistencies in Portelli's account: he claimed he was asked to perform duties beyond his contract, but the contract itself explicitly included cleaning, cooking from time to time, and full upkeep of the yacht. He also requested only three days of leave upon departure — far less than the 93.54 hours he later claimed. A logbook referenced in his affidavit was never produced in court; only a Seaman's Book covering days at sea was submitted. For these reasons, the court found that the prosecution had failed to meet the required standard of proof. Camilleri was acquitted on all charges due to insufficient evidence.

Anton Camilleri acquitted of all charges under Chapter 452 of the Laws of Malta (Employment and Industrial Relations Act). No fines, penalties, or compensation orders were imposed. The case was dismissed for lack of evidence (mankanza ta' provi).

• Under Article 46 of the Employment and Industrial Relations Act (Cap. 452), company directors, managers and secretaries are personally liable for wage offences committed by their company — unless they prove the offence occurred without their knowledge and that they exercised all due diligence to prevent it.
• An employee claiming unpaid overtime must provide sufficient evidence of the actual hours worked — payslips, timesheets or logbooks. Mere testimony without corroborating records is unlikely to meet the criminal standard of proof.
• A flexible working arrangement where excess summer hours are compensated by winter time-off is lawful under Maltese employment law, but if the employment ends before the employee can take that compensatory leave, monetary compensation may be owed for hours that can no longer be utilised.
• An employee's conduct at the point of termination — such as signing a receipt without protest and failing to mention overtime or leave claims in resignation correspondence — can significantly undermine a later legal claim for those amounts.
• Where a contract of employment explicitly includes duties such as cleaning, cooking and full yacht upkeep, an employee cannot credibly argue they were assigned tasks outside their contractual scope, which in turn affects their overall credibility as a witness.

Employment and Industrial Relations Act, Cap. 452 — Articles 45(1), 45(2), 46; Legal Notice 247 of 2003 as amended by Legal Notices 427/2007 and 259/2012; Criminal Code Cap. 9 — Article 18 (continued offence)

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