A 49-year-old woman has been found guilty of defrauding a man out of around Lm60,000 (around €140,000) after she blackmailed him over text messages he had sent to someone else.

Grace Gatt was accused of defrauding Gozo resident John Attard between 2004 and 2005.

Mr Attard was employed with the Department of Education in Gozo, and both he and a colleague were owed money by the same person.

Mr Attard had engaged Ms Gatt as his debt collector but convinced Attard that his colleague was going to take some form of retaliatory action.

She said that she would be able to solve this problem by intervening through the minister, against payment.

The court was told that Lourdes Castillo was meant to pick up the cash, amounting to around Lm60,000, on behalf of Mr Attard.

However, things got complicated after Mr Attard sent inappropriate mobile phone messages to one of Ms Castillo's female friends. When Ms Gatt and Ms Castillo got to know about these messages, they blackmailed him for Lm20,000, threatening to report him to the police if the money were not paid.

Ms Castillo, the court noted, had admitted to acting on the instructions of Ms Gatt.

The accused was found not guilty of trading in influence, but the court found her guilty of fraud. Magistrate Doreen Clarke sentenced her to two years imprisonment suspended for four years, also giving her six months to repay the victim.