Mother and children charged with fraud

A woman and her two sons and daughter have been charged with making use of counterfeit Lm5 bills at a petrol station.

The 47-year-old woman, her two sons aged 20 and 16 and her 21-year-old daughter are pleading not guilty to the charge.

The names of the members of the Qormi family are not being published to protect the identity of the minor son.

Magistrate Tonio Micallef Trigona yesterday heard how Carmelo Saliba had filed a police report claiming that counterfeit money was being used at his petrol station in Qormi.

Officers surveilled the area and intervened when they saw the 21-year-old woman who was about to use two counterfeit Lm5 bills at the station.

The magistrate also heard a man, whose name can not be published by court order, explain how the 16-year-old had given him five Lm5 bills and told him they were counterfeit. He used the bills to buy fuel for his car.

Police Inspector Ian Abdilla prosecuted.

Dr Giannella Caruana Curran appeared for the defendants.