Woman encashes social security cheques she was not entitled to

A Cospicua woman was yesterday given a one-year jail term suspended for three years for cashing over Lm5,000 worth of social security cheques she was not entitled to.

Anna Mizzi, 45, was also found guilty of giving the social security department false information.

Magistrate Consuelo Scerri Herrera heard how Mizzi was reported to the social security department by her former boyfriend, PC Emanuel Degiorgio, who claimed he had not known that Mizzi was receiving social benefit cheques while she was living with him.

But Magistrate Scerri Herrera ordered the police commissioner to look into whether PC Degiorgio knew about the cheques or not because, if he had known, he could be taken to court for complicity.

The constable only reported Mizzi after she left him. He claimed she was working when he met her in 1993 and that she moved in with him in August 1994 when he started giving her about Lm40 a week.

PC Degiorgio said he had asked Mizzi to change her address to reflect the fact that she had moved to Valletta but she did not want to.

Frankie Tedesco, senior principal with the department of social security, said that PC Degiorgio had informed the department that Mizzi lived with him but her identity card gave an address in Cospicua where the social assistance cheques were posted.

Tedesco said Mizzi received about Lm29.46 per week and other additional bonuses between October 1989 and June 1998. Had Mizzi told the department that she was living with Degiorgio, she would not have been entitled to social security.

Police Inspector Alexandra Mamo prosecuted.