Lawyer's jail term changed into suspended sentence

A Wardija lawyer who was originally jailed for two years for forging a contract and trying to obtain money through fraud yesterday had his punishment reduced to a 15-month jail term suspended for four years after an Appeal Court cleared him of the second charge.

Chief Justice Vincent DeGaetano reduced the punishment originally given to Patrick Spiteri after clearing him of attempted fraud.

The judge concluded his 20-page judgement by making it clear that the forgery of a public document is very serious since it is a crime against public trust and was made worse when committed by a lawyer.

He heard how on May 5, 2000, Notary John Debono had drawn up a contract of the sale of several plots of land between Carmel Muscat and his siblings and Spiteri.

The contract laid down that the land cost a total of Lm100,000 and Spiteri was to pay Lm50,000 upfront. The remaining Lm50,000 were to be divided into Lm25,000 to be paid within a year and another Lm25,000 within two years.

Some time later Emanuel Muscat and his wife (who are not related to Carmel Muscat) approached Spiteri to buy a plot of land.

On June 28, 2002, a promise of sale agreement between Emanuel Muscat and Spiteri was signed in the presence of George Muscat, the clerk of Notary Ian Spiteri who had overseen the research for the contract between Spiteri and Emanuel Muscat. The agreement was valid until September 28, 2002.

While conducing the research Notary Spiteri asked Spiteri for a copy of the contract between him (Spiteri) and Carmel Muscat in order to identify the precise location of the land to be sold to Emanuel Muscat.

On September 24, 2002, Spiteri passed a copy of the contract to the clerk. The copy was labelled as a "certified true copy of the original" and bore a signature above the typed words "Notary Dr John Debono".

Unlike the original one, the document which Spiteri gave to the clerk laid down that Lm50,000 were paid before the contract and the other Lm50,000 were paid on the day of the contract.

Suspecting that something was wrong, Notary Spiteri and the clerk contacted Notary Debono who confirmed that the document had not been issued by his office.

Following a case in the Magistrates' Court, Spiteri was found guilty of forging the contract and attempted fraud and was jailed for two years.

He appealed claiming that, among other things, it had not been proven that he had forged Notary Debono's signature. He also claimed he could not be found guilty of attempted fraud since it was merely a genuine mistake and he never had the criminal intent to defraud anyone.

The Chief Justice ruled that he had no doubt that the document had been made up by Spiteri with a particular aim in mind - at worst so that someone would one day be deceived and at best so that Spiteri would get Muscat off his back and his request for a copy of the contract.

The court argued that although it was convinced that Spiteri was aware that the document was forged, after reviewing the evidence it was not convinced that accused had passed on the document to the clerk with the intent to defraud Carmel or Emanuel Muscat.

It was strange that Spiteri, who had a copy of the original contract, would pass on a forged one when Notary Spiteri requested a copy specifically to verify the location of the property.

With all due respect to the First Court, the Chief Justice explained, it had not given enough weight to the fact that Notary Spiteri already had documents that showed that third parties still held a right to the land.

Besides, being a lawyer Spiteri knew that Notary Spiteri had to carry out research.

Dr Emmanuel Mallia and Dr Giannella Caruana Curran were counsel to Spiteri.