Cleared of fraud

A Zejtun woman has been cleared of defrauding a man of over Lm42,000 after a magistrate ruled there were not enough reasons for her to be indicted.

Maria Grazzia Cassar, 53, was cleared of defrauding Alexander Manché and stealing money from the HSBC and BOV bank on December 18, 2003.

The prosecution had claimed that Cassar withdrew money from the banks following the death of Mikelina Darmanin. But during the compilation of evidence Magistrate Giovanni Grixti heard that there had been conflicting researches carried out regarding Darmanin's will.

He heard Notary Joseph Tabone explain that he had drawn up a secret will at the request of Darmanin who passed away in September last year.

Following a request by Manché and others the notary carried out research so that the secret will would be read.

The secret will was located and the Second Hall of the Civil Court had published banns in local newspapers that Darmanin's will was to be read on December 16.

In the meantime, the notary received a letter from Dr Joe Sammut informing him that his client, Cassar, was the heir of Darmanin.

The notary phoned Dr Sammut and told him to act cautiously because there was a secret will that still had to be read out.

He eventually got to know that another research requested by Notary Joseph Lia, on behalf of the accused, had "incorrectly" said there were no secret wills by Darmanin.

When Manché, as Darmanin's heir, went to withdraw the money from the banks he was told that this had been withdrawn by the accused on December 18 and 24 last year.

Police Inspector Edel Mary Camilleri prosecuted.

Dr Giannella Caruana Curran and Dr Emanuel Mallia appeared for Cassar.