A man who died in a horrific motorcycle accident three weeks ago was robbed of €1,000 in cash and €2,500 in bank card transactions several hours after he died, his grieving mother and wife have told The Times.
Michael Sciberras, 37, was riding his motorcycle in the early hours of Saturday morning, October 16, when he was involved in a collision with a Chrysler 300 in Attard. He was on his way to catch the catamaran to Sicily at the time. The impact was so violent that his body was only spotted by a helicopter crew five hours later in a nearby tree.
As shocked family members came to terms with their sudden loss, theft and fraud were the last things on their minds. But alarm bells were set off when his brother Jeffrey went to the morgue on the following Monday morning and realised that his brother’s wallet, keys and portable GPS device were missing, together with at least €1,000 in cash.
Still unaware that her husband’s wallet had been stolen, his wife Joanne rang her bank that same morning to block her husband’s bank cards. She was in for a shock. Sometime later, a bank representative rang her back and informed her that five transactions of €500 each had taken place on Saturday afternoon, several hours after Mr Sciberras’s death.
The transactions all happened from the same spot and within a short period of time.
The family immediately informed the police of the theft and his wife stressed that she had the utmost faith in police investigations.
“I know they’re doing all they can and we appreciate all they’ve done so far. We’re speaking up because it’s just not acceptable that such things are allowed to happen. All we want is for someone to be responsible for what has happened and for other families who may go through similar situations to be aware of what has happened,” she said.
She dismissed the possibility that the wallet and money could have been flung away on impact and collected by a passer-by. “My husband was wearing a motorcycle jacket with secure pockets.
“Am I meant to believe that the wallet and money somehow flew off, while his passport and all the other things in his jacket pockets didn’t?”
Mr Sciberras’s mother, Margaret, said that, while she understood why police did not allow her near her son’s body on the day of the accident, “someone should be made responsible for caring for the body until it is released”.
The last thing I had on my mind at the time was blocking my husband’s bank cards- Widow
The young man’s bereaved wife agreed: “Who’s responsible for safeguarding the body? He was helpless, he couldn’t defend himself. Of course we would like the money back. The €3,500 stolen was snatched out of the mouth of our two-year-old son.”
The mother added: “I would have liked to have been able to keep the wallet and give it to my grandson one day.”
“The last thing I had on my mind at the time was blocking my husband’s bank cards,” the wife said, her voice cracking.
“Even if I had thought of it, I would never have imagined someone doing what they did. It hurts that someone would take advantage of such a sad situation.”