Free again: Patrick Spiteri was yesterday released on bail against a deposit of nearly €90,000.

Wanted fraudster Patrick Spiteri was released on bail yesterday against a security deposit of almost €90,000, Times of Malta has learnt.

The 50-year-old former lawyer appeared before the Westminster Magistrates’ Court in London on Monday after having been arrested on Saturday by Surrey police.

He was granted bail but remained in detention at a custodial facility in the London borough of Wandsworth until yesterday, when the money was deposited on his behalf.

The development opens a new opportunity for Mr Spiteri to buy time. He has repeatedly been accused by prosecutors and the courts in Malta of using delaying tactics in proceedings.

A spokeswoman for the London court said extradition cases such as those Mr Spiteri is facing could take days but even “months, a year, or more”, depending on how complex it was.

The outlook is not promising as the case has been put off to February 17. Sources said the police in Malta had not been given any update by the UK authorities since Mr Spiteri’s arrest on Saturday.

Questions to the police media unit about this remained unanswered at the time of writing.

Mr Spiteri has been wanted by the Maltese courts since October 20. A European arrest warrant was issued after questions were raised over a set of medical certificates he had presented claiming he had multiple sclerosis and could not travel back to Malta to face fraud and misappropriation charges.

Officer ‘unsurprised Spiteri was released’

He is facing eight cases, having allegedly defrauded a number of people of more than €10 million.

The authorities in Malta were unaware of his whereabouts but Surrey police moved in on Saturday afternoon after he was tracked down to a €4 million country mansion in the wealthy rural town of Churt by journalists from The Sunday Times of Malta.

Bail is an awful amount of money

A Surrey police officer who did not wish to comment officially said he was not surprised by the provisional release, adding that the amount set for bail was “an awful amount of money”.

“The reality is that it depends on the magistrate, who will consider the financial standing of the accused, what he is being accused of and the risk of him absconding.”

In this case, the British courts will have to evaluate whether Mr Spiteri was trying to con his way out of facing justice in Malta. To do so, they will have to test whether he is ill and whether he really is unable to travel.

Police sources said Mr Spiteri walked normally when he was arrested, when he was found hiding underneath a bed.

When asked about his supposed ailment, former Tory MEP Tom Spencer, who owns the property where Mr Spiteri was staying, indicated he believed the wanted man was making it up.

“Patrick would, on some occasions, climb down the stairs apparently hardly able to move, having to prop himself up with a walking stick... then, on other days, he would forget and be completely normal,” he said.

Mr Spiteri’s arrest could not be filmed because Mr Spencer’s wife, Liz, who believes Mr Spiteri is the victim of persecution, demanded that the journalists leave the property. The mansion and its grounds cover an area 15 acres.

In May, Magistrate Consuelo Scerri Herrera, at the request of the prosecution, decided to indefinitely put off a case in which Mr Spiteri was accused of defrauding an Italian businessman of almost €5 million.

That set a precedent for seven other pending cases. However, the police eventually started looking into Mr Spiteri’s certificates and decided to issue an arrest warrant.

For years, Mr Spiteri was known as a tax law guru and ran a very successful investments firm.

He advised the administration of former prime minister Eddie Fenech Adami on the introduction of VAT in 1995 and then acted as a consultant to Labour a year later on the changeover to the Customs and Excise Tax.

Things began going pear-shaped towards the end of the 1990s, when he was investigated in relation to cases of fraud and misappropriation, in Malta and in Italy, which led to at least 11 criminal cases against him. So far, he has been found guilty in one case, in which he forged a property contract.