The assistant headmaster of the Marsa boys secondary school yesterday told a court that eight out of nine invoices for school transport bore a signature that was not his.

Carmel Micallef was shown nine invoices and recognised his signature on only one of them. He said the other eight invoices bore a figure inflated by some Lm100 or Lm150 each.

Micallef testified in the compilation of evidence against Public Transport Association treasurer Alphonse Abela, 51, who is pleading not guilty to forgery and fraud.

Earlier, Birzebbuga primary school assistant head Joseph Vella said there were two invoices which bore a signature which was not his and the discrepancy in one of them was of Lm3.10.

He said the invoices could be reconciled with the register kept at the school but this exercise had never been carried out by the school.

Vella said he had a habit of marking corrections on the invoices and not filling in the "trips not performed" forms. The invoice which carried an inconsistency of Lm3.10 could in fact be compared to a duplicate invoice which bore the correction.

Magistrate Antonio Mizzi yesterday also heard Vincent Piccinino and Anthony Cachia from the Education Division give detailed explanations of how the system worked.

Piccinino explained that the system had now been computerised and there was little chance of error.

The case continues.

Police Inspectors Alexandra Mamo and Bernard Zarb are prosecuting.

Dr Franco Debono is appearing for the defendant.

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