Original judgements in VAT scam case confirmed

A. Mizzi

Nov 14th 2009, 06:13

Will the perpetuators of this VAT scam refund the funds they acquired by their deeds?

Why will the courts not satisfy, as termed - the public outcry?

Justice has to be done and seen to be done , that is why the appeal was originally made.

After all it is the PUBLIC and hard earned tax-payers' money that were frauded and who does not feel angry and frustrated if one gets frauded , culprit is caught and practically handled with velvet gloves ...and keeps his booty?

Does one have to resort to European Courts to have Justice?

Albert Muscat

Nov 13th 2009, 19:38

Times of Malta Tuesday, 16th September 2009 In Parliament, Labour MP Gavin Gulia said that rather than making his speech, he would read out the people's concerns as expressed in comments sent to timesofmalta.com throughout the day. He then proceeded to read them all, without mentioning the senders. He was later criticised by Dr Gatt for having wasted part of his time in the House saying the country was not run according to what was said on blogs. Times of Malta. 13 November 2009. The court, he said, was not there to satisfy public outcry or to judged by comments on the internet.No comments!

Noel Hili

Nov 13th 2009, 19:10

@D. Zammit You hit the nail on its head. I fully concur with you. If the Government is seriously combating fraud, then it must open a Civil case against all the accused and get back by whatever means the money stolen from the Public Funds. It's not fair that for every issue people are over taxed in this country and then 18 businessmen are let loose with a simple interdiction. I know that for a businessman an interdiction is a punishment, but we all know that somebody else can be elected director on their behalf and go business as usual. THE MONEY MUST BE REFUNDED BACK - NO QUESTIONS ASKED MR.MINISTER OF FINANCE !!!!

E. Azzopardi

Nov 13th 2009, 17:39

If that is the law, then it has to be changed as of now. If for example, a person got €10000 through a fraud and then he or she is fined €700, plus a suspended sentence. So is that it? A nice handsome profit of €9300. Of course, the people expect the government to get back all the money that was "taken" from them!

A Borg

Nov 13th 2009, 17:20

@J Martinelli If you want to take this from a political responsibility angle. The date is irrelevant. The PN/GonziPN was in gov for the last 2 decades and so they are politically responsible. If the law was like that before they got the power they still had plenty of time to correct it. In any case this is not the key point. The Gov has to take responsibility and rectify the situation in any case.

J Martinelli

Nov 13th 2009, 16:41

Can A Borg inform us when the current law was passed?

I honestly do not know, so I would appreciate the information.

D. Zammit

Nov 13th 2009, 16:05

OK. If that the law, then that is what they deserve for breaking the law.

Now, the Govt. should open a civil case against these defrauders personally for the money they stole from his pocket which after all is our pocket.

Those funds could have been used for example to further increase the Govt allowance for the electricity bills as the money stolen was around € 10 Million whilst the benefits mentioned in the budget where of the same amount.

A Borg

Nov 13th 2009, 15:56

The Chief Justice is making an interesting point here.

My interpretation of this is that the Chief Justice is simply applying the law. So if anyone is to blame than that should be our dear Government who when legislating did not consider a fraud of millions of euros to be a serious crime.

Can someone from the Government let us know what they think?

This reminds me of the recent case where a drug trafficker was freed because the substance he was importing was not listed as an illegal drug.

U. D'Amico

Nov 13th 2009, 13:46

ok then change the law.. if what they have been given was in line with the law!

Peter Korsten

Nov 13th 2009, 13:32

"...or to judged by comments on the internet.

Now what could they possibly be referring to? :)

Still, the parameters of the law seem somewhat strange at times (and this is not a criticism of the judiciary, but more of the legislator), because on the one hand you go to jail for 25 years for smuggling drugs, but for fraud, corruption and bribery - just like drugs, a big problem in this country - you get a suspended sentence.

Joe Fenech

Nov 13th 2009, 12:56

So according to current Maltese law, fraud is not a crime???

A.Attard

Nov 13th 2009, 12:38

Very well! Than the law should be amended to reflect the infringement of such circumstances.