A man who suffers severe bipolar disorder and is a drug addict allegedly defrauded a restaurant and a car hire company by pretended he was a senior official of the Office of the Prime Minister, a court heard today.

The man, 35 of Tigne' was arraigned in court today and accused of defrauding RG Motors and Ir-Rizzu Restaurant, breaching bail conditions given in three separate cases, and relapsing.

Police Inspector Ian Abdilla said this man urgently needed psychiatric help for his condition. Although he had a drug addiction, it was the psychiatric problem which needed to be addressed immediately.

He said that the accused had rented a top-of-the-range BMW for some three months after telling the company he had rented it from that it was for the Office of the Prime Minister.

He would also leave a note on the windscreen when the car was illegally parked, declaring it was in use by the OPM.

The accused had also dined at Ir-Rizzu. He told the owners that the prime minister would be eating at the restaurant on the following day and to add his bill to the following day's account.

The case came to light when the car rental company and the restaurant billed the Office of the Prime Minister only to find out that the accused did not work there. The police were then called in.

Lawyer Jason Azzopardi said he agreed with the prosecution that the accused needed to be placed under an immediate treatment order.

Inspector Abdilla said that every hour that the accused was out resulted in another court case. He pointed out that he had been through a number of drug rehabilitation programme but relapsed after every one of them.

Magistrate Antonio Vella remanded the accused in custody and ordered that he be seen immediately by a psychiatrist,