Mark Gaffarena who is at the centre of a number of scandals and has even been mentioned in the Daniel Zammit inquiry report, said in a comment on this website and on his wife's Facebook wall that he had met Opposition deputy leader Beppe Fenech Adami several times and that Dr Fenech Adami's wife had for a time been his notary.

However, Dr Fenech Adami told the Times of Malta that his friendship with Mr Gaffarena, if there was one, did not pay off as did Mr Gaffarena's friendship with Parliamentary Secretary Michael Falzon.

“His illegal petrol station remained illegal under the Nationalist administration and no permit was issued for it.”

Dr Fenech Adami was asked during a news conference yesterday whether he knew the Gaffarena family. After a moment’s hesitation he said he did and he could have met them socially but could not say how many times.

In his comment, Mr Gaffarena asked Dr Fenech Adami whether he forgot how many times he had given him a lift home when he had not yet been a Nationalist Party candidate and if he forgot how many times they had eaten together and had drinks at Villa Arrigo.

He asked him whether he forgot when he called him and asked him to intervene when he had problems with a particular person.

Dr Fenech Adami said that the drinks at Villa Arrigo were a 60th birthday bash for which both he and Mr Gaffarena had been invited.

And as for eating together, Mr Gaffarena and himself had both been invited to a barbeque, attended by some 200 people.

“We did not go together, we were both invitees,” Dr Fenech Adami said.

He said he did not know what Mr Gaffarena was talking about when he mentioned the lifts he gave him home and when he spoke about asking him to intervene when he had a problem with a third person.

Dr Fenech Adami said that his wife, who was a notary by profession, did some work for Mr Gaffarena in 2003 or 2004 when he was not even a PN candidate, let alone an MP.

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