A man was charged today with defrauding two businessmen out of a total of €55,000 when he falsely claimed he could win them contracts from the IT Ministry.

Joseph Friggieri, 45 of St Paul's Bay was accused of having, earlier this month and on previous occasions, defrauded Mario and Emanuel Borg.

Inspector Maurice Curmi told the court that the accused, who is unemployed, had falsely claimed to be a close friend of Emanuel Delia, head of secretariat at the Ministry of the Infrastructure, Transport and IT,  and that he could make arrangements for the two businessmen to win contracts at SmartCity. The two had given him €55,000 up front.

The accused used to pretend that he was on the phone with Mr Delia, when there was actually no one at the other end.

Mr Friggieri pleaded not guilty and was granted bail against a personal guarantee of €1,000

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