Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/1503864
8 maltatoday | SUNDAY • 16 JULY 2023 NEWS Vacancies in the Ministry for Health The Ministry for Health is seeking to employ: Retired/Retiring Public Officers within the Healthcare Professional Grades to perform duties on a full-time/part-time basis within the Ministry for Health Eligible applicants must be: • Healthcare Professionals who have reached retirement age (not more than 70 years of age) or are expected to reach retirement age by the 31st December 2023, AND who were either retired/retiring public officers A copy of the call as advertised in the Government Gazette of Friday, 14th July 2023 may be obtained from the People Management Division (contact details below). Applications are to be received through the Government Recruitment Portal only through the following link https://recruitment.gov.mt by not later than 13:30hrs (Central European Summer Time) of Friday, 28 th July 2023 Any further information may be obtained from the: People Management Division 15, Palazzo Castellania, Merchants Street, Valletta, VLT 1171, Malta Telephone: +356 22992604 Email: recruitment.health@gov.mt MINISTRY FOR HEALTH 15, Palazzo Castellania, Merchants Street, Valletta, VLT 1171, Malta Tel: 22992604 Email: recruitment.health@gov.mt MAT TH E W VELLA A request by the disbarred lawyer Patrick Spiteri to have an appeal against an order to return €1.5 million heard again by a new court, has been thrown out. The decision was handed down by an appeals court, that pointed out numerous legal errors in Spiteri's request for a retrial, ordering him to pay the double fees and costs for the original appeal, with an added €800. "Spiteri's action for a rehear- ing of his appeals case was to- tally vexatious," the appeals court, presided by Mr Justice Robert Mangion, said. "It is clear in the manner this action was worded that he is trying to find any excuse under the sun to wrangle a retrial. This is a weak attempt that has led to nowhere. Considering that this case has been dragging on since 2003, and that Spiteri has already been condemned to pay double his original fees and expenses, it is only fair that this is again reflected in the expenses for this court case." Originally, an appeals court in August 2022 dismissed Spi- teri's request to overturn a 2016 judgment condemning him to return over €1.5 million to a British, former solicitor who entrusted him with the cash back in 1998. The court, presided by Chief Justice Mark Chetcuti, ruled Spiteri's ap- peal against conviction frivo- lous and vexatious, ordering him to suffer double costs. Stuart Creggy filed the claim in 2003, accusing Spiteri of refusing to return the cash he was supposed to invest for him. Spiteri was expected to invest the €1.5 million trans- ferred to him from Creggy's Swiss bank account. Creggy had been arrested in June 1998 in the UK, over an internation- al investigation into a $17 mil- lion investment share fraud, run from New York. Creggy himself was subse- quently convicted of mon- ey-laundering offences in 2007, receiving a suspended term of imprisonment of 18 months and £900,000 fine. Creggy, who submitted his evidence in the form of an af- fidavit, said Spiteri was the di- rector of his offshore company Cuzon Limited, which he used to hold the funds from the sale of a £122,000 property. The money was transferred to Spi- teri's law firm's bank account. In 2001, diagnosed with leu- kaemia, Creggy met Spiteri while in Washington DC, in- structing him to return his funds. "He replied that he had deposited my funds in Swit- zerland in a clients' account... that he would need some con- siderable time to organise pay- ments to me. I was rather sur- prised by this statement since one is to presume that clients' funds, particularly if they are of a substantial value, should be kept in separate accounts and not moved without my consent," Creggy said in his affidavit. Spiteri denied the claims, but it was only after 2017 that he was finally cross-examined in a Maltese court after his ex- tradition from London. He claimed the monies were now held by third parties he identi- fied as UK residents Ethel Im- ber Lithman, Adela Lithman, David Diamond and a certain "E F Falougi of Empire Ltd", and Shai Granot from Israel. Although he requested a summons for 20 foreign wit- nesses, Spiteri failed to com- plete the requisite legal for- malities to do so. The appeals court said it was "off-key" for him to complain of having been deprived of the right to summon witnesses when he had failed to make use of the procedure applicable to his circumstances. Spiteri is still facing fraud and misappropriation charges in a €7.4 million case dating back 20 years. He was arrested in Surrey, England in 2016 and extradited to Malta. Spiteri was eventually granted bail on several conditions, amongst them that he does not leave the Maltese islands. In October 2022, Spiteri was condemned to serve two years in jail for defrauding Leslie Bricusse, the double Oscar winner and international com- poser – who died at 90 in 2021 – of £150,000. mvella@mediatoday.com.mt Conman Spiteri fails attempt for €1.5 million retrial Disbarred lawyer Patrick Spiteri