The director of a local travel agency, acquitted of any involvement in a ticket-refund scheme intended to defraud the EU coffers, has once again been cleared on appeal by a court declaring that he ought to have never been “dragged” into the proceedings.
Kenneth De Martino, 58, director of KD Travel Services Ltd, had been targeted by criminal prosecution for allegedly participating in the scam and for issuing false statements.
The case had stemmed from an investigation undertaken by OLAF, the European Commission’s anti-fraud Office, later followed up by local police, which had led to the uncovering of a fraudulent practice involving members of the Local Councils Association.
When traveling abroad for Committee of the Regions meetings, these local representatives had allegedly devised a scheme whereby they claimed reimbursement of club class ticket prices, when they would actually have travelled in economy class.
It emerged that the tickets were regularly purchased from KD Travel Services Ltd, upon the issue of a quotation which would later be presented to the relative authority for reimbursement.
Upon the evidence put forward by the prosecution, the Magistrates’ Court had concluded that the accused, both personally and as director of the travel agency, had not been a party to the fraud, pronouncing an acquittal in October 2016.
However, the Attorney General then filed an appeal claiming wrong interpretation of the law by the first court, insisting that the accused knew of the fraud committed by third parties to the detriment of EU authorities.
The court of appeal, presided over by Mr Justice Giovanni Grixti, declared that it agreed with the conclusions of the first court, pointing out that the acts of the case did not in any way indicate a "so-called common design between the accused and the perpetrators of the crime."
The court threw out the AG’s argument that the accused had drawn unjust profits through the regular purchase of flight tickets by members of the Local Councils Association.
As rightly pointed out by the defence counsel, the travel agency director would simply issue an informal, handwritten quotation every time he received a request for flight tickets. This quotation could not serve as proof of a cash sale or invoice, the defence had rightly argued, insisting that his client was completely extraneous to the scam.
The court of appeal concluded that the decision to present such a “scribbled quotation” to obtain the refund, had been taken solely by the purchaser who “ought not to have dragged the accused into these proceedings,” and thereby confirmed the acquittal.
Lawyer Joseph Giglio was defence counsel.