A woman charged with blackmailing a greengrocer with compromising pictures of him in her bedroom told the police it was the man himself who made the indecent proposal to be paid with sex for €600 she owed him.

She claimed he pestered her so much that she finally gave in, a court heard yesterday.

Police Inspector Fabian Fleri was giving a rundown of police investigations into the case during the compilation of evidence against the woman, her 17-year-old daughter and 37-year-old sister who stand charged with extorting €15,300 from the greengrocer last month.

They cannot be named by court order.

The officer said the woman owed the grocer €600 and as she failed to repay the money he began pestering her about it. In the end, the two arranged to have sex in her bedroom. To stop tongues from wagging in the neighbourhood, he would go to the house with the excuse of delivering a sack of potatoes.

Unbeknown to him, however, the woman had allegedly hatched a plan with her daughter and sister. They were to burst into the room the moment the 60-year-old grocer removed his clothes and demand €6,524 in cash from the woman. They were to tell her that if she didn't pay up, they were going to show her husband a photo of the greengrocer and the woman together.

They carried out their plan and photographed the couple with both a mobile phone and a camera. When the grocer heard them threaten the woman he got scared and told them he would fork out the money himself.

He promptly got dressed, went straight to a bank to make the withdrawal and paid up, the inspector said. The woman's daughter and her sister then destroyed the mobile phone in front of him.

Sometime later, the grocer saw the daughter with her aunt in Main Street, Żabbar and went over to find out what they were doing there. They told him the girl had been thrown out of the house when her father found out about their scheme and she had nowhere to live. She demanded a further €8,854 from him, threatening that if she was not given the money she was going to show the photo taken with the camera to his wife.

He agreed to pay up but it being late in the day and the banks were closed, he withdrew the money the next day and met them in Cospicua at a place known as Is-Sur.

The girl handed over the photo and he destroyed it.

He implored them to let him keep at least €1,824 as he had bills to pay but the girl allegedly told him he should be grateful that she hadn't asked for more, the officer said.

Inspector Fleri said that when he questioned the women separately, they denied everything but then the 17-year-old owned up and spilled the beans.

The case continues.

Lawyers Michael and Noella Sciriha appeared for the three women.