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.

cperegin@timesofmalta.com