A 60-year-old company director from Marsascala today was given an 18-month jail term suspended for four years after failing to pay €60,867 in V.A.T arrears.

A court heard how director Mario Cachia, who runs the company on his own, used to declare the money in his V.A.T returns, but failed to actually pay the V.A.T department the amount due because his company, Plumelec, was facing financial difficulties.

A criminal complaint was eventually filed by the V.A.T department for the arrears dating back to 2001.

Magistrate Consuelo Scerri Herrera explained that the case was deferred a number of times on the request of the accused in order for him to try and reach some sort of agreement with the V.A.T department, but this failed.

The Magistrate said Mr Cachia was charging his clients V.A.T and not paying it to the department, and was therefore guilty of misappropriating the funds.