A woman was jailed for six years yesterday after on Tuesday she had admitted to her involvement in laundering about Lm71,000.

In the first such case being heard in the Criminal Court, Maria Abela, 35, from Gzira, who was due to stand trial, pleaded guilty to her involvement in the crime during the period between January 2002 and 2004.

She was also found guilty of falsification of documents and transactions for the purposes of money laundering.

According to the bill of indictment, the accused received an amount of money through Bank of Valletta in May 2004. The money was transferred into an account in Abela’s name, on behalf of Alasram Holdings Limited, with which she was involved in the import and export of merchandise.

The police had also found that other fraudulent transactions had passed through the same bank account, as well as other accounts, dating back to at least January 2002.

Police investigations showed that Abela, together with other foreigner parties, was involved in illegal money transactions, carried out by means of falsified documents, to the detriment of a number of Swiss companies including but not only, Jeric Holding, Holmus Mohsen Esadeh, Frank Marchan and Lecshof Finance.

Abela was allegedly paid 10 per cent of the total amount of money that was transferred into her account over the years, which amounted to about Lm71,000 but her lawyer argued that she had to use this money to pay expenses incurred by the foreigners, since they had said they were going to open a company in Malta.

Presenting submissions on Tuesday, when Abela was due to stand trial, the prosecution called on the court to sentence the woman to seven years in prison and fine her Lm20,000.

However, the court took into consideration, among other aspects, that the accused’s lawyer had been reassured by Senior Counsel to the Republic Donatella Frendo Dimech, that a minimum five-year jail term would be a reasonable punishment in this case.

In handing down judgement, Mr Justice Galea Debono also acknowledged the fact that this was the first case of money laundering heard in the Criminal Court and it was therefore important to establish certain parameters regarding punishments in such cases, in view that this was a serious crime and connected to international crime.

The judgement stated that Abela had registered a guilty plea way back November 2005, at a stage of compilation of evidence, and she had again pleaded guilty when she was due to stand trial.

Among its considerations, the court mentioned Abela’s clean criminal record prior to the money laundering incidents.

On Tuesday, Mr Justice Galea Debono made reference to the fact that the relatively new legislation on money laundering was rather ambiguous and it was very difficult for the court to apply the law.

The law provides that anyone found guilty of this crime could be jailed or fined, or get both a jail term and a fine, up to a maximum of 14 years and Lm1 million.

Following lengthy consideration, Mr Justice Galea Debono sentenced Abela to six years in prison, ruling that the time spent in preventive custody in connection with this case should be deducted from the jail term.

Assistant Attorney General Anthony Barbara prosecuted and legal aid Martin Fenech appeared for the accused.