Sunday, 21st September 2008
Hotel owner may face further fraud charges
The manager of the Serena Hotel in Gozo could soon face further charges of fraud after police assessed the evidence provided by a number of former guests.
The Sunday Times reported last month that several tourists were claiming their credit card had been used without authorisation or that they were unwittingly charged for services. The hotel's owner and manager, Joe Vella, strenuously denies the claims.
During the past six weeks, police established contact with those who spoke to the newspaper, and several others came forward with similar claims. Among these were several Maltese timeshare owners who were told that they could exchange their allotted stay through various international operators. Almost all the operators, however, had backed out of the relationship with the Serena Hotel following the complaints, leaving these Maltese families with timeshare that they cannot exchange.
Last week, an elderly British couple who stayed at the Serena Hotel in June and claimed to have been defrauded of £1,600, sent a file of documents to support claims that the hotel had defrauded them.
A day after the article appeared in The Sunday Times, Mr Vella was charged with attempting to defraud a French couple, but there have been no developments since.
The Serena Hotel is still operating as usual, and since the article published last month more complaints have been posted on the popular travel review website www.tripadvisor.com and on timesofmalta.com.
Ten per cent of all formal complaints submitted to the Malta Tourism Authority last year were in relation to the Serena.
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Comments
Regarding the Serena Hotel in Gozo, which had 10% of all complaints received by the Malta Tourism Authority (MTA) - this tells me several things, whether the accusations are proven in a court of law or not: -
1. The MTA must be incompetent or unwilling to act for some reason (powerful people involved perhaps).
2. Perhaps the MTA has no legal power to revoke a licence or similar.
3. The reporting and follow up procedures at the MTA do not working (this is a management failure issue).
4. This situation has been going on for a long time apparently and yet more people are still suffering at this so called hotel.
5. The money spent on promoting Malta is wasted because of this bad publicity .
6. Common sense would asy that surely so many people complaining cannot be wrong.
7. This will happen again if Malta does not change its 'do nothing if possible and just have an easy life' attitude.
8. Fraud is a crime not a misdemeanor.
I am not Mr Azzopardi. Are you?
if we were to follow that dictum we might as well close the law courts and the police stations.
Those who have no sins should throw the first stone. Are you one of them ????????
If 10% of all complaints received by the Malta Tourism Authority (MTA) were generated solely by one single hotel then surely something is amiss. Did the MTA do anything about it before criminal proceedings were instituted. Are they doing anything about it now ?? - I wonder what that 10% equates to in numbers - is it 10, 1,000 or maybe even 10,000
It is well known locally that unfortunately we have a penchant for ripping off tourists and it seems that it has become such a part of our culture to bite the hand that feeds which may explain the MTA's casual approach. Well, it must be a pretty casual attitude if the hotel is still operating despite generating a whopping 10% of all complaints.
Pointless spending thousands to promote our islands when so many leave with a bitter taste in their mouths. Isn't it about time that the authorities get serious. Piddling little fines will not do the trick. Revoking their licence to operate will. Be it a hotel, a taxi driver, bar or even Freddie the grocer on the corner.