The author of a book about statues used in religious processions filed an application claiming his work was plagiarised by convicted fraudster Josef Grech.

Last month Joseph Mary Grech filed a judicial protest against Josef Grech claiming that he had taken advantage of the similarity of their names and published a book bearing the exact same title as his original work, Vari Ta’ Malta u Għawdex, published in 1998.

The author and his lawyer, Emmy Bezzina, today took the case a step further and filed an application in the First Hall of the Civil Court  -  opening a court case against Josef Grech who published his book last year with the same content and 80 scanned photos from the original work.

Josef Grech, founder of the Dominic Mintoff Foundation, set up in 2012, and author of the former prime minister’s biography, has been convicted of fraud on several occasions.

Last April 1, he was jailed for 20 months for defrauding musicians by paying them with cheques issued on a closed bank account.

Joseph Grech today filed the application against Josef Grech and Doreen Spiteri of Dom Communications, which published the alleged plagiarised work in 2014.

He called on the court to order that he was the owner of the original work and, therefore, the intellectual property, and declare that Josef Grech's book amounted to plagiarism and a breach of that intellectual property.

He also asked the court to order Josef Grech to pay him for the damages suffered and to remove the plagiarised book from circulation.