Four persons involved in a motor insurance racket have been convicted of fraud after filing an early admission of guilt. The punishments varied from suspended jail terms and community work.
The four were part of a group of 22 people charged last January, following a police investigation which uncovered a racket targeting eight major insurance companies between 2009 and 2013.
During proceedings it transpired that the group used the same pool of vehicles to collude on a number of compensation claims.
Some cars had been declared a total loss, with one particular fraudster pocketing €27,000 for a wrecked BMW. Others superficially patched their vehicles up to reuse them. Insurance firms Untours, Elmo, Atlas, Gasan, Allcare, Citadel, Fogg (Argus) and Middlesea were all targeted by the group.
While four of the accused pleaded guilty, proceedings against the rest of the group are still pending.
Ivan Degiovanni, 33, was sentenced to 20 months in jail suspended for two years and ordered to do 300 hours of community work. He pleaded guilty to defrauding Atlas Insurance of more than €5,000, defrauding Untours Insurance of between €500 and €5,000 and attempted to defraud Gasan Mamo Insurance of a similar amount.
Charmaine De Giovanni, 23, who admitted to defrauding Untours Insurance Company €3,500, was sentenced to nine months’ imprisonment suspended for a year and ordered to perform 100 hours of community work. She was also placed under a supervision order for a year.
The third person was Chris Vassallo, 22, from Qormi, who was placed on probation and ordered to carry out 40 hours of community work. He admitted to defrauding Untours Insurance Brokers of a sum that exceeded €5,000. The court noted that the accused was acting under pressure from his father.
The fourth person convicted was Joseph Sultana, 38 of Qormi, who admitted to defrauding Untours. He was sentenced to nine months imprisonment suspended for a year and ordered to do 60 hours of community work.
The court noted that all four had a clean criminal record, that they had cooperated with the police and the fact that they had refunded the defrauded money.
Police inspectors Rennie Stivala and Arthur Mercieca prosecuted whereas Magistrate Aaron Farrugia presided the cases.