Man dupes 15 in Gozo farmhouses scam
A man duped 15 people into paying deposits for holidays in Gozo farmhouses which he did not own, a court was told this morning.
Andre Apap, 23, admitted to defrauding several people through his scheme.
The court was told that Apap advertised farmhouse holidays on Maltapark. 15 people booked holidays and paid deposits ranging from €300 to €50.
Apap used to cancel the bookings shortly before the guests were due to arrive, and never refunded the deposits.
The court was told that the farmhouses did not belong to the accused and he had lifted pictures from various sites.
Sentence will be given by the court after a pre-sentencing report.
Apap was granted bail against a personal guarantee of €10,000.
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22 Comments
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josmar cilia
Sep 12th 2012, 07:57
we were also tricked by him we met with him he gave us wrong details ans even a wrong id number. And a week before he wasn't reachable and we knew that something went wrong. We filed a report with the police also.
Dom.J. Bugejja
Sep 11th 2012, 19:57
nice one
donald borg
Sep 11th 2012, 18:48
When you trust you bust so don't trust and you won't bust. Trust only GOD.
Mark Formosa
Sep 11th 2012, 18:27
My family booked 2 seperate stays with him and we gave him EUR500. Who is going to give us the money back?? We had all booked our leave and lost precious time chasing this guy in vain.
Josef Schembri
Sep 11th 2012, 19:06
survival of the fittest mate , i would spend another 60eu and get level with this guy lol
Patricia Buttigieg
Sep 11th 2012, 17:22
He should be severely punished. He was putting in bad light the good reputation of the self catering accommodation in Gozo. Where are his parents? Youths with lack of discipline.
M Gatt
Sep 11th 2012, 17:12
Ohhh so is this how Mr Apap got a BMW at the age of 21?
Karen Pace
Sep 11th 2012, 16:58
I booked a farmhouse from him 2 months ago. I gave him a deposit of EUR 270. He came for the deposit personally. I should have realised that this was a scam because normally no one come for the deposit himself. But at that time I believed him. He sent me an SMS the day before at 10.00 p.m. stating that there was on overbooking and that we could not go to Gozo. His mobile numbers are always off or busy. All my family had the vacation leave booked etc He gave me a mobile number of someone else to book another farmhouse from this guy. But I did not call this guy.
A. Attard
Sep 11th 2012, 16:28
Punishment: book a farmhouse to accommodate people he has duped...and make him work for them for as long as necessary.
marielou gatt
Sep 11th 2012, 16:26
this guy has been doing this for years! we had booked a farmhouse from him about 3 years ago and met him to give him 50e deposit. when the day we had to go to the farmouse arrived he told us that the roof of the farmhouse fell and of course we realised it was a scam!! so we sent him another msg from a different numbered mobile acting as though we were interested in renting out another farmhouse and he fell for the trick. when we had to meet to give the deposit we confronted him and he had to give us our money back. when we had reported this to the police they told us that they could not do anything about it!
Francis Saliba M.D.
Sep 12th 2012, 08:56
" ... we had reported this to the police they told us that they could not do anything about it!" (Marilou gatt)
This unbelievable claim that the police "could not do anything about it" is all too prevalent.
We had the entrance to our driveway obstructed for over a week by a car parked dangerously and illegally within one and a half metres of a corner in spite of written requests to the owner to, please, park legally so that we would not be obliged to lodge a report. When the police eventually inspected the infringement they had the brazen cheek to report falsely that everything was in order and the car was parked more than five metres away from the corner. It took me a whole morning of protesting in vain over the phone to several police stations only to be rebuffed by the claim that the particular police sergeant was one "tal-affari tieghu". Finally I established contact with a Police Inspector to complain and I informed her that I had photographic evidence and four witnesses whom I could produce to prove my complaint. It was only then the local police could be induced to fix an illegal parking ticket to the windscreen, nevertheless the car remained illegally parked until I lodged another report after which the owner must have been tipped off and he belatedly removed the illegally parked car.
Evidently some people are more equal than others in the eyes of some policemen. My family gets tickets for parking in an area where the car had never been or when correctly parked. But then I am an ordinary citizen possessing a family car and not someone in the car trade enjoying some privileged status.
Michael Bonello
Sep 11th 2012, 16:10
Yes dear friends I was nicked by him too I paid € 279 as a deposit and just a day before he put in my letter box the same amount of money in a check which I cannot cash because he had no money in the account so he told me that he was going to give my deposit money to another person in Gozo and so I paid the difference to the other person but the gozo person did not get his money from him so he was taken to court and then the Gozo person got paid but he has done it many times before
stephen mifsud
Sep 11th 2012, 15:09
what an idiot ... teach this guy a lesson and make him pay for his crime .
Lawrence Fenech
Sep 11th 2012, 15:48
@Stephen
Yes, another 60 euros.
Ms Xixi Caruana
Sep 11th 2012, 15:04
Xi dwejjaq ta nies!!! Corporal Punishment ... How can I not agree with it??!!!
eve mc,keon
Sep 11th 2012, 14:28
Justice been done. I was one of the people whom have been scammed. We had to move in the farmhouse on a Friday and the day before he sent an sms stating he is abroad, therefore we have to cancel the booking. We tried calling him again but it was all for nothing. We had already bought food from Malta for 14 people, you can imagine all the hassle we went through to try and find other accommodation.
Joseph Collict
Sep 11th 2012, 15:06
Once I was going to rent a farmhouse from him. I met him and thank god my brother came with me and realized that it wasn't real!
Cinzia Fenech
Sep 11th 2012, 15:12
i was scammed as well, sent him registered letters to ask for the deposit back with no reply. And yes, i can share all your feelings, as we had to go through the same experiance, and it was carnival weekend. What should i do ?
joseph hili
Sep 11th 2012, 16:55
so next time buy buy food from gozo
L. Borg
Sep 11th 2012, 13:05
Hope the people will get their money back, and the amount will also be doubled as a fine, otherwise justice would not have been done.
A Camilleri
Sep 11th 2012, 14:34
A suspended sentence - you bet!!!!!!
G Schembri
Sep 11th 2012, 16:33
Getting your moneuy back is not enough. People usually book holidays from work to go to Gozo, it that holiday was called off at the last minute, these people would have lost their holiday as well as the money, Most probably it is more disappointing to lose the fun than to lose the money.
Please choose the reason of your report below: