A former VAT inspector was yesterday jailed for six months, fined, and given a general interdiction after she was found guilty of accepting a €1,000 gift for speeding up the payment of refunds to her uncle.
Liliana Galea, 33, from Marsascala, was just a small part of the corruption scandal that rocked the institution in 2009 and involved millions of euro in fraudulent transactions.
The person the police believe to be the mastermind, Nigel Abela, 40 from Dingli, who stands charged with pocketing €186,000. His case is still pending.
The investigation led to 32 people, including another five VAT department employees, six men thought to be middlemen and 20 businessmen, some of whom have been convicted.
Ms Galea worked simultaneously as a VAT inspector and a customer care representative and in this function she was responsible to verify information given by tax-registered people when they would ask for a correction in the VAT returns.
She worked in the same office as another former VAT inspector, Carmel Deguara, who was found guilty of receiving a bribe of some €450 and eventually gave evidence against her.
On the witness stand, he said Ms Galea had on occasion given him sealed envelopes to pass on to Saviour Micallef, her uncle, and that once Mr Micallef gave him money to hand over to his niece as a thank you for speeding up a refund which he was due to receive.
Mr Micallef also testified, saying that he had given an envelope containing his returns to Ms Galea so she could take them to the cash office. He also admitted to giving her €1,000 but argued that this was a Christmas present.
In her judgement, Magistrate Doreen Clarke pointed out that Ms Galea had at first said the money she received was a present only to then admit that when she received the money, Mr Micallef told her that it was for helping out “with those envelopes”.
Ms Galea said that Mr Micallef had given her the money at her house and during the conversation they had to change the subject because at that point her husband had come home.
Magistrate Clarke said that from the evidence before her, there was no doubt that Ms Galea, as a public official, helped Mr Micallef and for this accepted €1,000.
She was acquitted of revealing official secrets seeing as she was actually responsible to give out the information she did about what her uncle owed as a customer care representative.
In her considerations, the magistrate noted the seriousness of the crime, the impact the crime had on society and on the other hand Ms Galea’s almost clean criminal record.
Besides the jail term and perpetual interdiction she was fined €1,000 and given three months to pay it.