Identity Malta said late last night that it had changed procedure on the granting of residence permits because of 'address theft'.

It was reacting to comments made in Parliament by Nationalist MP Jason Azzopardi who mentioned two cases where people had used local addresses they had no connection with in order to get a residence permit. He also noted that a residence permit was one of the steps towards gaining citizenship. 

Identity Malta said it received a report in August 2014. Immediate investigation showed that the situation arose because of a shortcoming in the procedure which has been in place for a number of years.

Following this investigation, Identity Malta laid down that residence permits were to be issued only when the applicant submitted an original copy of the  lease agreement for the property indicated as residence.

The person who lodged the compliant was informed of the action taken.

Identity Malta noted that the same person said that he had reported another case on the same address which involved social benefit fraud in 2012.

It insisted that this application for residence had absolutely nothing to do with the Individual Investor Programme "which uses the highest global level of due diligence."

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