An emotional businessman yesterday described how he was left in financial ruin by a fraudster who effectively left him with nothing but the clothes on his back and suicidal thoughts.

The noisy courtroom soon fell silent as Joseph Spiteri broke down in tears several times during his extraordinary testimony in which he recounted how Joseph Friggieri, 45, from Msida had pulled the wool over his eyes and defrauded him of €750,000.

He said that the situation was so bad that he had to sell his house, his furniture, rent out his shop for far less than it was worth and was left looking over his shoulder because he had even borrowed money from people to help pay, for what he thought, was a tender for a SmartCity project.

Mr Friggieri allegedly impersonated IT and Infrastructure Minister Austin Gatt, the head of his secretariat, Manuel Delia, and former Malta Information Technology Agency chairman Claudio Grech, changing his voice on his mobile phone to make him cough up money to secure the tender.

Though he suspected that it was Mr Friggieri on the other end of the line, Mr Spiteri said he was fooled because he was not sure about it.

Mr Spiteri said that he paid money to bid for contracts to provide perimeter fencing and air-conditioning units for the SmartCity project.

On one occasion, after handing him a substantial amount of money, Mr Friggieri took him to a large villa and said that although it was worth about €850,000 he was willing to let it go for €350,000.

Mr Spiteri said he was interested and wanted to buy it but told him that he could only pay for it once the payment for the contracts came through. Mr Friggieri asked him for 15 per cent of the total amount and handed over the key to the house.

Only later did he find out that the house belonged to the director of the now defunct electronics outlet Mambra, Mr Spiteri said.

Sometime later, he received a phone call from Mr Friggieri, possibly posing as Mr Delia, asking him to book a hotel for 32 people who were coming from Italy to work on the SmartCity project.

He found the Cerviola Hotel in Marsascala and signed a contract for the people to stay there for a year. The expense was supposedly to be covered by Dr Gatt’s ministry.

Months went by and the people never arrived, leading the owner of the hotel to take legal action against him and forcing him to pay about €46,000.

Breaking down in tears, Mr Spiteri said that he had been blind and did not listen to his own wife who warned him that Mr Friggieri was taking him for a ride.

When the sitting ended, Mr Friggieri asked the court reporters present to consider publishing the report tomorrow rather than today because he had a job interview. He said that although he did owe Mr Spiteri €150,000 and would pay him back, what was said in court was not correct.

The case continues.

Lawyer Giannella de Marco appeared parte civile.

Lawyer Charmaine Cherrett appeared for Mr Friggieri.