Notary charged with fraud

A notary was yesterday charged with forging the signature of a former employee, also a notary, onto three power of attorney documents.

Sandro Schembri Adami, 40, of Valletta pleaded not guilty to forging Sara Anne Agius's signature onto the documents on and before August 2004. He also pleaded not guilty to making a false declaration as a public officer and making malicious use of the documents.

Magistrate Anthony Vella heard Agius explain she had known Schembri Adami for some time as he had encouraged her to take on the line of work.

She had started working for him when she was a student and then stopped working at his firm in April 2004 after a clash over a document.

Agius left Schembri Adami's firm on a bad note and immediately informed anybody she had done business with on his behalf that she no longer worked with him. She did so because she felt it was her responsibility, she said.

Then, in August 2004, Agius received a phone call from an HSBC manager about a suspicious power of attorney document. When she went to the bank she saw the document of a certain Alfred Gauci et.

"When I saw the signature on the document I was shocked. I did not know the people (the Gaucis) mentioned in the document and the signature was not mine."

Some time later she was contacted by Bank of Valletta and shown three power of attorney documents. One was a copy of the Alfred Gauci et document and the other two belonged to Yvonne Fenech et and Eileen Agius et.

On all three documents, her signature had been forged, she said.

Police Inspector Joseph Cordina, prosecuting, explained how he had received a letter from the Attorney General's office asking him to investigate suspicious documents.

After giving an overview of his investigations, the prosecuting officer explained how Schembri Adami denied forging any signatures during questioning.

Dr Stefano Filletti appeared for the defendant.