Duncan Buttigieg, who is now a property negotiator, leaving court yesterday. Photo: Chris Sant Fournier

A car dealer was back in court denying using a forged and stolen cheque to buy a Rolex watch, just a day after he was sentenced to nine years in jail over a scam on the importation of cars from the UK.

The watch was sold for less than half the price within two hours of purchase and before the cheque used to buy it had bounced.

Duncan Buttigieg, 31, from Għaxaq, appeared before Magistrate Audrey Demicoli charged with defrauding Edwards, Lowell Company Limited, the agents of Rolex watches in Malta, and Andrea Scicluna Calleja, the man to whom he sold the watch.

On Wednesday, Mr Buttigieg was jailed for nine years after he admitted to defrauding several people who gave him between €1,500 and €6,000 in deposits to import cars from the UK.

Police inspector Anna Marie Xuereb explained how the police began their investigations last October after a €5,000 cheque used to buy the Rolex was dishonoured.

She said the investigations had revealed that Mr Buttigieg had used a cheque belonging to his former girlfriend, Louise Farrugia, to pay for the watch. Ms Farrugia told the police she never gave her cheque book or her identity card to anybody.

Some time after the purchase, Mr Buttigieg contacted Mr Scicluna Calleja who had put out an advert on Maltapark saying he was a keen collector of watches.

When he met Mr Scicluna Calleja, Mr Buttigieg told him the Rolex was an unwanted gift and that he needed the money for his six-year-old son who was in hospital with stomach cancer. They agreed on a €2,000 price tag and some time later they met again and the cash was exchanged.

Mr Scicluna Calleja told the court that Mr Buttigieg had assured him that the watch had not been stolen or procured from illegal sources. The certificates and guarantee were authentic.

He told him the Rolex was an unwanted gift and that he needed the money for his six-year-old son who was in hospital with stomach cancer

When he arrived home that evening, he found a receipt at the bottom of the box. When he saw that it had only been purchased by cheque earlier that day, he called Malcolm Lowell, the company’s managing director. A few days later, the bank informed Mr Lowell that the cheque had been rejected and the police began investigating.

Both Mr Scicluna Calleja and Mr Lowell told the court that they ran a Google search on Mr Buttigieg and they realised he had a history of similar cases.

The men said that the cheque was not honoured so the company never got paid for the watch, while Mr Scicluna Calleja had lost the €2,000.

Inspector Xuereb said the police also found a certificate supposedly issued by the Institute of Maltese Journalists saying that Mr Buttigieg was a journalist. When contacted, the institute confirmed that it was a fake certificate.

The same happened with some Matsec certificates the police found in his possession. Mr Buttigieg told the police he had fabricated the certificates “just for fun”.

The case continues.

At the end of the sitting, Magistrate Demicoli said there was enough prima facie evidence for Mr Buttigieg to be indicted.

Mr Buttigieg later approached journalists wanting to react to the car scam story, and said only 42 of the 77 people he had defrauded had not been repaid. The remaining are between them owed some €40,000, and he was willing to pay them.

He said he was appealing the nine-year jail term, claiming that the first court had not considered the fraud cases as a continuous crime since the police had split the reports it had received into four cases.

The fifth case regarding social benefits amounting to €1,200 had been settled.