Twenty-two people are facing fraud charges after the police uncovered a complex insurance fraud ring which, between 2009 and 2013, defrauded eight insurance companies of hundreds of thousands of euros.
One accused did not appear in court and was slapped with a fine for contempt of court while another accused could not be traced.
The eight companies involved are Untours, Elmo, Atlas, Gasan, Allcare, Citadel, Fogg (Argus) and Middlesea.
The people involved wove a complex web of collusion which saw vehicles being exchanged, claims being repeated with different insurances and traffic accidents carefully planned out.
A number of vehicles were labelled as a total loss, with one particular person pocketing a total of €27,000 for a wrecked BMW. Others superficially patched their vehicles up to reuse them.
So far, two people have admitted to the charges of fraud and of giving false declarations with the aim of receiving undue payments.
A 33-year-old man from Tarxien, who cannot be named under court order since he might be called to testify against a third party, pleaded guilty to defrauding Atlas, Gasan Mamo and Untours in 2013.
A representative from Atlas insurance told the court that the accused had claimed he had reversed into another vehicle. He was paid €3,000, which he repaid.
Joseph Sultana, 38 from Qormi, also pleaded guilty to defrauding Untours of €1,100 in May, 2012.
Magistrate Aaron Bugeja ordered a pre-sentencing report in both cases to enable him to be in a better position to hand out the judgments.
Four accused pleaded not guilty while the lawyers of the remaining parties asked for their respective hearings to be postponed to allow them to regularise their client's position.
Lawyers Michael Sciriha and Joe Giglio argued that the law stipulated that if payment is effected before the judgment is given out, the punishment could be downgraded.
Furthermore, the defence lawyers requested the prosecution to quantify the exact amount that the insurers allegedly lost, so that they would be able to negotiate with the insurance companies with a view of reaching a potential out-of-court settlement. The court gave the lawyers until the next sitting to come up with conclusions.
Inspector Rennie Stivala prosecuted.