Money, claimed to have been stolen from the Moviment Azzjoni Socjali, ended up in an account opened in the name of an anti-EU movement set up by former Prime Minister Karmenu Mifsud Bonnici.

This was revealed in the background to a case heard in the Court of Appeal recently and regarded the sentence handed down by Mr Justice Joe Galea Debono last Thursday.

The accused, known only by initials DL, since he was a minor when the incident took place, was appointed by Dr Mifsud Bonnici to be one of the leaders of Moviment NEWTRO, set up to oppose Malta’s accession to the EU in January 2003.

In fact, on 10 January, Dr Mifsud Bonnici himself wrote a letter of reference to the BOV branch in Republic Street authorising the accused to operate the current account.

Moviment NEWTRO, whose name was chosen to join together the two concepts of neutrality and No to the EU, had its headquarters at Dar it-Tama in Matti Grima Street, Cospicua, under the aegis of Fr Mark Montebello.

On 11 February, a committee meeting took place at MAS headquarters in Old Mint Street, Valletta. Present were president Carmelina Debono, vice-president Dr Hugh Grima, secretary Mary Buttigieg and treasurer John Bonnici.

When the meeting ended, Mrs Buttigieg noticed that her handbag, which she had left in another room, was missing.

After a search, the handbag was found near the building’s front door and, while the cash in the handbag was still there, the key to the MAS moneybox was missing, along with some other items.

Two days later, on 13 February, the accused went to BOV in Republic Street and opened a savings account also in the name of NEWTRO and with the same address of Dar it-Tama as the original current account.

That day, the accused deposited a cheque for Lm500 with a C. Debono signature in favour of Moviment NEWTRO and that same day he withdrew Lm300 from it.

The next day, he deposited another cheque for Lm600, with the same signature, and withdrew the same amount. The same happened on 15 February, 24 February and 4 March by which date no money remained in this account.

Only when MAS treasurer Joe Bonnici received the bank’s statement around the end of March was it realised that unauthorised cheques were being cashed, and the link to the moneybox theft made.

It was very easy for the police to trace the unauthorised cheques back to the accused.

When he testified in his own defence, the accused said he had been appointed Moviment NEWTRO’s treasurer and that Dr Mifsud Bonnici and Mark Farrugia were substitute treasurers.

He also claimed the movement had received two cheques for Lm600 and one for Lm500 at Dar it-Tama and the cheques had been cashed and the money spent, along with other money they received from the EU, on T-shirts and on travel for the members.

The accused had also claimed the cheques had come to Dar it-Tama between January and February and had been brought there by Mark Farrugia and he had cashed them himself. He denied having stolen cheques or chequebooks or having falsified any cheques.

Although the accused said there was no problem paying back these Lm1,700 to MAS, the judge, in his sentence, said there is no evidence this was done and, on the contrary, it seemed that it was the bank which refunded the money to MAS.

The accused had said he wanted to cite Dr Mifsud Bonnici and Fr Montebello as witnesses, but Dr Mifsud Bonnici, apart from confirming he had signed the letter of reference to open the first account, asked to be exempted from testifying since he had given advice to the accused. Neither Fr Montebello nor Mark Farrugia were produced as witnesses by the accused. The only witness who testified was Dr Owen Bonnici who said he was doing his lawyer practice with Dr Mifsud Bonnici at the time and he remembers the accused going to speak to Dr Mifsud Bonnici.

In its sentence, the Court of Appeal concluded that if there was no direct evidence that the accused had stolen the handbag and moneybox from MAS headquarters, the fact he deposited the cheques and cashed them himself lays him open to charges of receiving stolen goods, especially as he could not account for how the cheques came to Dar it-Tama.

The court also referred to the accused’s criminal record, which, despite his young age, showed he had already been found guilty of serious crimes nine time. It is interesting to note the accused’s seeming predilection for stealing from church-related organisations, such as the Sliema Salesians, YMCA, the Vittoriosa parish church, “a residence in Matti Grima Street”, and St John’s Co-Cathedral, no less.

In conclusion, the Court of Appeal criticised the long time it takes to produce a judgement and urged the court to have up-to-date information on the life of the accused, for, had this happened in this case, the nine-month prison sentence he was originally given would have been much longer.