A contractor and an accounts clerk were handed a suspended prison sentence after they were found guilty of defrauding Transport Malta of thousands of euros for road works carried out.
George Oliver Schembri, a company director was condemned to two years in prison suspended for four. He was also ordered to pay €110,000 fine. The accounts clerk, Donald Camilleri, was handed an 18-month prison sentence suspended for four years. He was also ordered to pay a fine of €30,000.
Schembri and Camilleri were originally charged with fraud by inflating bills handed to Transport Malta for road works in various localities. Back in 2012, architect Johann Farrugia, who had worked with the company, Alfred Schembri and Sons Ltd, since 2006, said some bills had more than doubled. He had issued the original bills but some had been highly inflated, and he knew of no explanation for this.
One Żabbar road had cost almost €29,000 but that had been upped to €66,000. Another costing almost €25,000 had gone up to €71,000 and another of over €38,000 went up to over €73,000.
The court, presided by Magistrate Joe Mifsud, took into consideration the fact that the amount which was defrauded against Transport Malta was given back. The alleged fraud amounted to some €500,000 and the court noted that it was paid before the court proceedings continued.
Schembri and Camilleri were also charged with bribing a Transport Malta official and money laundering.
In its sentence, the court also ordered the accused to pay the sum of €5,000 for the expenses incurred during the investigations. Donald Camilleri was ordered to pay €1,600 while George Oliver Schembri was ordered to pay a total of €3,400.
In handing the sentence, the magistrate said that corruption is an insidious plague that has a wide range of corrosive effects on society. “It undermines democracy and the rule of law, leads to violations of human rights, distorts markets, erodes the quality of life and allows organised crime, terrorism and other threats to human society to flourish,” the magistrate quoted.
“Corruption is a cancer: a cancer that eats away at a citizen's faith in democracy, diminishes the instinct for innovation and creativity; already-tight national budgets, crowding out important national investments. It wastes the talent of entire generations. It scares away investments and jobs.”
Inspectors Yvonne Farrugia and Fabian Fleri led the prosecution. Lawyers Joe Giglio and Kenneth Grima appeared for the accused.