Company files writ against former secretary and HSBC

Greenlines Environmental Services Ltd yesterday filed a writ in the First Hall of the Civil Court against Joanna and Pierre Calleja and against HSBC Bank (Malta) plc.

The company claimed that Joanna Calleja had been employed with it as a secretary, and that one of her duties was the collection of money due to the company.

However, Calleja had never been authorised to sign any documents on behalf of the company, nor was she entitled to endorse cheques made out to the company.

Greenlines claimed in its writ that between 1998 and 2002 Calleja had misappropriated over Lm30,000 that belonged to the company.

She had done so by endorsing cheques made out to the company and depositing them into bank accounts belonging to her and to her husband Pierre.

These transactions took place on a regular basis for a period of time.

The company claimed that Calleja had abusively deposited money into accounts held with HSBC Bank (Malta) plc, and that the bank, which was not the payer of the majority of the cheques, was duty bound to verify the authenticity of the endorsements.

The bank, said the company, had failed to carry out the due verifications, and had accepted the deposit of the cheques into Calleja's account.

Furthermore, the bank had failed to obtain a source of provenance of funds record from Calleja, even though the funds deposited were not compatible with the income of Calleja or her husband.

The company added that from the total sum of Lm30,327.16, Calleja and her husband had refunded Lm7,500.

Consequently, the company was owed Lm22,827.16.

The company requested the Court to declare that Calleja's actions were illegal and to order the Callejas to refund the money to the company.

The court was also requested to condemn HSBC Bank (Malta) plc to make good the damages sustained by the company, in the sum of Lm22,827.16.

The writ was signed by Dr Jason Azzopardi, Dr Kris Busietta and Dr Reuben Farrugia.