A simple but effective plan to allegedly rob the taxpayer of more than half a million euro was exposed in court yesterday as four men were charged with defrauding Transport Malta on several road contracts over the past two years.
The kingpin of the group, who worked as an architect with the transport authority, used to inflate the cost of road contracts so he and one of the directors of a contracting company could split the difference, the court heard yesterday. In some cases he allegedly doubled the cost.
The 35-year-old architect, Gordon Zammit, from Sliema and 49-year-old George-Oliver Schembri, from Birżebbuġa, who runs Alfred Schembri and Sons Ltd, allegedly managed to siphon off more than €500,000 after it was converted into cash by a friend who owed them a favour.
Two of Mr Schembri’s employees, a project manager and an architect, would send in legitimate itemised bills of a finished road to Transport Malta. Unbeknown to them, Mr Zammit would then add in other items to inflate the value of the works, the court heard.
The authority would pay the bills and Mr Zammit and Mr Schembri would take the extra cheques to a third man, Godfrey Cutajar, 36, from Birżebbuġa, who owns a scrap metal company. Mr Cutajar would accept the cheques in return for fictitious sales of scrap metal, cash them and give the money to the men, Police Inspector Angelo Gafa’ said.
The money was split between Mr Zammit and Mr Schembri after the latter had deducted VAT and tax, he added.
Mr Schembri and Mr Zammit pleaded not guilty to obtaining money or property on false pretences, defrauding Transport Malta, bribery, making false declarations and money laundering.
Mr Zammit alone was charged with committing these crimes as a public official.
Mr Cutajar admitted to money laundering and will be sentenced at a later date.
The fourth man, Donald Camilleri, 36, from Tarxien, who works as an accounts clerk with Mr Schembri, pleaded not guilty to the same charges as his boss.
Accompanied by family members, the men stood uncomfortably in the dock as Inspectors Gafa’ and Fabian Fleri asked the court to freeze their personal assets and those of the company.
Lawyers Kenneth Grima and Victor Bugeja argued against this, pointing out that freezing the company’s assets would definitely impact employees and their families who depended on the paycheques.
The inspectors insisted, however, that the crime was very serious and that an inventory of assets was needed. Magistrate Giovanni Grixti ordered that all the assets be frozen.
The lawyers fought equally hard for their clients to be kept out of prison and given bail, which requests were turned down by the magistrate, who remanded them in custody.
Mr Cutajar on the other hand was granted bail against a personal guarantee of €1,000 and a deposit of €1,000.
The case was then postponed until Monday.