A “confidence trickster” was yesterday sent to jail for 10 years for defrauding a man of more than €100,000 – having conned him into believing that he was investing his funds.

Joseph Francis Scerri, 53, who had previously worked for HSBC for 23 years, had been given power of attorney by the victim, Mario Gauci of Birkirkara, under the pretext of using his investments on a car import business.

In its decision the court, presided over by Magistrate Anthony Vella, said it was “amply clear” that Mr Scerri had deceived both Mr Gauci and HSBC cashier Marcette Cefai, who lost her job and a substantial part of her pension fund. Ms Cefai was deceived by the accused when he persuaded her to cash a number of APS cheques issued in Mr Gauci’s name for a total of €134,430.

Contrary to standard procedure, Ms Cefai cashed the cheques with immediate effect, whereas it would normally take the bank three days to issue clearance.

Unfortunately for the cashier, the bank was only able to recover some of the funds from APS. Faced by an outstanding amount of €56,000, Ms Cefai’s job was immediately terminated and the amount deducted from her pension.

It was amply clear that he had also deceived an HSBC cashier, who lost her job

Ms Cefai subsequently launched legal proceedings against Mr Scerri. She told the court he had called at the bank branch where she used to work and conned her into believing that he had ventured into business in Bulgaria.

Though she initially refused to cash the cheques, she was persuaded to change her mind because he had had no issue with previous cheques up to that point.

When some of the cheques could not be honoured – because there were insufficient funds in Mr Gauci’s accounts – the bank contacted Mr Scerri but was only able to recover €35,000.

Mr Gauci told police he had trusted the accused, believing that his experience as a former bank employee would come in handy.

Mr Scerri initially invited him, in 2008, to invest Lm800 in oil companies and the Vatican. Three years later he persuaded Mr Scerri to give him power of attorney, exploiting that he was not able to understand bank documents.

On his part, the accused told the police that he had run into financial problems due to his car importation business. While admitting that he had used Mr Gauci’s funds to pay off other people, he also acknowledged that owed him in excess of €100,000.

The accused also failed to produce evidence to substantiate his claim that he had set up a joint business venture with Mr Gauci. In view of this the court dismissed his claims, saying the explanations given by the accused did not make sense and had not been proven. More than €100,000 had been taken from a bank account without a single car having been imported, the court observed.

While noting it had been proven beyond doubt that Mr Scerri was a “confidence trickster”, the court sentenced him to 10 years in jail.