The first batch of 20 people out of around 430 suspected of benefiting from false mariner’s licences issued by the Malta Maritime Authority (MMA) were yesterday charged in court.
Before Magistrate Michael Mallia, four out of the 20 pleaded guilty to trading in influence, making false declaration and making use of forged documents.
Three people did not appear in court as they were not notified, while the remainder, all men, asked for their case to be put off in order to regularise their position prior to filing a plea.
The case came to light after allegations were made in parliament by opposition MPs. As a result, a massive investigation was carried out by the Police Corps’ Economic Crimes Unit.
This led to charges being pressed against two MMA officials for allegedly taking bribes to issue false mariner’s licences.
The two officials involved are John Farrugia, 60, who works as a small ships administrator at the authority and Ivan Muscat, 30, a clerk in the same department. They have pending proceedings in which they are being charged with accepting bribes to issue false nautical licences as well as forging documents of the Malta College for Arts, Science and Technology fraud, misappropriating funds, maliciously using false documents and committing a crime they were duty bound to prevent.
In yesterday’s hearing, George Azzopardi, Nazzareno Camilleri, Alan Cilia and Salvu Schembri were each sentenced to a one-year jail term suspended for two years, fined Lm500 and banned from obtaining a nautical licence for a year.
The others charged in court are Michel Attard, Paul Azzopardi, Jude Caruana, Christian Cassano, Grezzju Dalli, George Grech, Ian Meli, Carmelo Micallef, Dominic Micallef, Joseph Micallef, Francis Muscat, Kevin Sammut, Joseph Spiteri, Carmel Vella, Joseph Vella and Jason Zammit
Another batch of 20 accused are expected to be charged in court today before Magistrate Mallia.
Police Inspector Ian Abdilla prosecuted with the assistance of Franco Vassallo and Joseph Camilleri from MMA. Various lawyers represented the accused.