Independent Candidate Arnold Cassola urged magistrates who are presiding over cases of beneficiaries who had fraudulently benefited from a disability scheme they were not eligible for, to continue probing deeper into the remaining approximate 600 cases, after 141 cases were brought to court.

Cassola quoted a Sunday Times of Malta article which revealed that beneficiaries of the fraudulent scheme were lured into the racket in return for their votes and a kickback amounting to a year's worth of benefits.

The beneficiaries interviewed said that aside from former Labour MP Silvio Grixti, there were various middlemen who would forge doctors' signatures and rubber stamps, as well as false Transport Malta documents.

Grixti has been implicated in a years-long racket to help "hundreds" of people fraudulently receive an average of €450 monthly in disability benefits they were not entitled to.

Beneficiaries of the fraudulent scheme mentioned that they were referred to Grixti by party canvassers, a minister, a minister's aide or from the customer care section at Castille.

Cassola said that, allegedly, apart from former Parliamentary Secretary Silvio Parnis, present Minister Owen Bonnici and Alison Zerafa Civelli's canvasser Sonia Abela, other middlemen have been mentioned in connection with this racket.

"Fraudster recipients of this mafia style vote buying scheme have told police they were referred to Grixti by a minister, a minister's aide or from the customer care section at Castille, the prime minister's office," Cassola said.

He now urged Magistrates Gabriella Vella, Rachel Montebello, Ian Farrugia and Elaine Rizzo, who have presided over the 141 cases brought up in court till now, as well as any other magistrate assigned new cases, to probe deeper in the remaining 600 or so cases coming up.

"The threat to democracy is very serious.  Apart from being the magistrates' duty, they will be doing their biggest service to the country by uncovering this web of politicians, canvassers, forgerers and middlemen that have lowered Malta's democratic standards to North Korean standards," Cassola said.

Times of Malta said that police is investigating the potential role of one or more middlemen who were allegedly pushing the racket to spread among voters while cashing in kickbacks.

It said that some 141 people have so far been ordered to return a total of €2.1 million in severe disability assistance benefits they were not entitled to, but the figure is expected to climb even higher as police continue to comb through all 761 applications that were awarded the benefit between 2019 and 2022.