Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/1468033
8 NEWS maltatoday | WEDNESDAY • 18 MAY 2022 MATTHEW AGIUS A self-employed cleaner has been remanded in custody after being accused of taking a total of around €300,000 from at least 27 people in exchange for cut-price government housing properties which never materialised. Police inspectors Shawn Frig- gieri and Ritienne Gauci ar- raigned 42 year-old Sarah Ann Gatt from Santa Venera before magistrate Josette Demicoli this afternoon. Gatt, who told the court she worked as a cleaner, pleaded not guilty to charges which include fraud, misappropriation, forgery of public and private documents, breaching the conditions of a suspended sentence and recidi- vism. The charges referred to crimes which started in 2018 and con- tinued until this month. Inspector Friggieri, who told the court that he had been as- signed to the case just over a month ago, explained how the Housing Department had in- formed the police after receiving a number of similar complaints regarding property which was supposed to have been built but had not materialised. He said the victims had told the police that they had been approached by two persons with an offer to sell them government housing stock at a reduced price. "We're talking about a block of five flats for €200,000." A number of messages, which the inspector said purported to come from the Housing Author- ity, were sent to the victims. The police traced the messages to one of the accused's numbers. The persons would collect payments, ostensibly to secure properties from the Housing Authority, but would then dis- appear with the money. During a search of Gauci's resi- dence, the police had discovered several blank official letterheads and government envelopes, he said. The investigation of the claims, originally dealt with four vic- tims, but as the investigation progressed, the number soon ballooned to 24, exceeding €260,000 in total value, the court was told. Police had identified three women as suspects, one of them being the accused. The other two persons were understood to still be operating, he said. In view of the not guilty plea, lawyer Franco Debono request- ed bail for the accused. This was objected to by the prosecution due to fears of the accused tam- pering with evidence. "We have a plethora of victims defrauded by this woman who need to tes- tify. There is a risk that she may approach them," said prosecutor Andrea Zammit from the Office of the Attorney General. There was also a risk to the police in- vestigation into third parties, he added. The woman had been convict- ed of similar crimes of fraud in the past, Zammit said and had breached the terms of a sus- pended sentence, in addition to being a recidivist. Debono reminded the court that the accused was presumed innocent at this stage. "I under- stand that the prosecution has preserved the evidence by now… If we are saying that the crimes date back to 2018, there were plenty of opportunities for the accused to tamper with evidence or approach witnesses. The fear did not start today." Zammit told the court it was unjust of the defence to posit this argument: "While it was true that the police had the opportu- nity to interview several victims, the police were still discovering new victims." There had not been a magis- terial inquiry in this case and therefore that there was a risk that the accused could attempt to influence witnesses, he added. "There was no inquiry," re- peated Debono. "This is the crux of everything…the law already specifies a lot. When an inquiry is held, the witnesses heard there are not even supposed to testify in the compilation of evidence. I am sick and tired of hearing ill-informed comments about this," he said. "So before we start uselessly trying to change the compila- tion of evidence, do we already know that there already are strict timeframes? Compilations of evidence are supposed to be wrapped up in a period of one month." "Our client should not be prej- udiced by the fact that no inquiry was held," he said, ruing that the evidence had not been properly preserved through no fault of the accused. The court, however, refused bail and ordered the woman be remanded in custody in view of the risk of her attempting to influence or suborn witnesses, urging the prosecution to sum- mon its witnesses without delay. A request for a freezing order was also upheld. Debono told the court that he had been insisting for the past ten years that witnesses should be summoned in the first sitting in all cases, and not just when the defendant is a tourist who is due to leave the islands. The practice of assigning com- pilations of evidence to other magistrates after arraignment is a measure intended to avoid what is known as "forum shop- ping", by choosing when to ar- raign so as to have the case heard by a particular magistrate on du- ty that day, as opposed to others. "But we have ended up with a lot of people in custody until their compilation starts," Debono ex- plained to the MaltaToday after the sitting was over. Woman charged with defrauding 'at least' 27 people out of €300,000 in government housing swindle DUST in the air was observed for six days in April, causing considerably reduced visibility on two particular days and con- tributing to less sunshine, the Meteorological Office said. The effects of the dust were particularly prominent on 6 and 21 April when visibility was greatly reduced. The dust resulted from large amounts of dust and sand coming from the desert in north Africa, a normal occurence in spring. April brought warmer spring days to Malta as the average air temperature increased by 3.4°C over March. However, at 15.8°C, last month's average air temperature was still 0.6°C below the climate norm for April, while the mean sea surface temperature was 0.3°C lower than the expected 16.3°C. April's maximum air temper- ature peaked at 24.6°C on 25 April, while the lowest temper- ature was recorded on 19 April at 8.4°C. The 19 April was the coldest month but also the sunniest, with 12.4 hours of sunshine re- corded. No sunshine was record- ed on 15,16, and 28 as a result of dust in the air and high levels of humidity which produced hazy weather. April's mean cloud cover was perfectly in line with the norm of 3.6 oktas but the sunshine hours during the month failed to meas- ure up to the monthly quota of 252.9 hours. April also yielded just 2.0 mm of precipitation, rather than the expected 18.7 mm. In fact, April continued the dri- er-than-average trend that has been observed since the begin- ning of the year. The month's wettest days were 15 and 18 April, each of which produced 0.8 mm of precipita- tion. 15 April also produced the month's maximum gust of 42 knots from the northeast by east direction as powerful winds swept across Malta. The month was windier than expected, with the average wind speed exceeding the climate norm of 9.5 knots by 1.6 knots. Desert sand from north Africa in April led to less sunshine Photo taken on 21 April when the sky took on a sepia tone as Malta was swept by desert sand (Photo: Kurt Sansone)