Two men are behind bars after allegedly making thousands of euros by selling 'hand-made Persian carpets' which were actually machine-made.

The two Portuguese bothers, born in Brazil, pleaded not guilty when they were arraigned on Thursday morning.

Prosecuting inspectors Mario Xiberras and Shaun Friggieri told the court how a number of persons, some highly prominent, had been targeted by the suspect swindlers who posed as sellers of ‘hand-made Persian carpets of high quality,’ only for their unsuspecting customers to discover later that the goods were no more than machine-made goods.

The men allegedly raked in thousands through the scam over the past couple of months, as attested by the list of clients and the receipt books found in their possession.

The men also handed false product certificates to their victims, the court heard.

The brothers, aged 32 and 37, were accused of criminal conspiracy, using false means to defraud their victims, making use of false documents besides various breaches of fiscal regulations.

One of the men was separately charged with having driven without a valid insurance cover.

In view of the fact that investigations are still ongoing, with the possibility of further arraignments, Magistrate Francesco Depasquale, upheld a request by the prosecution for a ban on the publication of the names of the accused.

No request for bail was made at this stage, although defence lawyer Helen Caruana did point out that the arrest and arraignment were premature.

The men would now have to remain in jail until investigations continued, the lawyer observed, prompting the prosecution to rebut that the case had been well investigated before today’s arraignment.

Lawyers Shazoo Ghaznavi and Helen Caruana were defence counsel.