Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/609762
8 maltatoday, WEDNESDAY, 2 DECEMBER 2015 News 8 Decision time tomorrow on Nadur belevedere JAMES DEBONO THE Mepa board will determine to- morrow whether to allow the build- ing of a 1.4 metre high wall which would block the view from Nadur belvedere. THE decision was postponed in July in a bid to try to come to an agree- ment about the application. In a heated meeting in July it was board member Timothy Gambin who proposed a compromise: push- ing back the present railing so that those on the belvedere could not look into the applicant's land, and thus there would be no need for a wall to be built. The Nadur local council had accepted this compro- mise in a letter sent to MEPA in August. If the railing is set back visitors will still enjoy the view but not be able to look down into the applicant's field. The application, to build the 1.4 metre high wall, was filed by An- drew Vella and his family, owners of the field below the belvedere in David Cocco Palmeri Street and Mgarr Road. The request is strongly opposed by the Nadur council and National- ist MP Chris Said, a former Nadur mayor. The applicant is proposing the 12.8 metre long wall along part of the belvedere instead of the railing, to separate the public place from the applicant's property immedi- ately below. Part of the green area below the belvedere belongs to Andrew Vella, who unsuccessfully applied to build two separate houses with a garage below the ridge. MEPA's case officer has recom- mended the board to approve the application, dismissing numerous objections by the Nadur local coun- cil and residents. The council is opposed to the de- velopment because the wall would deprive the public of the view from the highest part of Nadur ridge, screening off scenic views, includ- ing of the Gozo channel, which can currently be viewed from the belve- dere. The MEPA case officer justified the positive recommendation by pointing out that a court decision has allowed the construction of the 1.5m wall above belvedere level, to delineate the property; and that the revised 1.4m height is the height normally allowed for a front garden boundary wall "so as to reduce the obstruction of views." The case officer said that although the site is a green area, "the pro- posed wall respects the court sen- tence and has been re-designed to better reflect its context." In 2004, MEPA had already re- fused the construction of a house and garage right below the pro- posed wall. An identical application on an adjoining plot owned by Vella was also refused in 2003. The 2004 refusal was recommend- ed by the case officer because the site was a green area "as defined in the Temporary Provisions Scheme for Nadur and so it is located in an area which should be developed for recreational purposes." Woman accused of conning businessmen had previous convictions MATTHEW VELLA A woman fraudster who last week was denied bail for swindling two Maltese businessmen out of nearly €200,000, had already been jailed on similar charges abroad. According to the International Chamber of Commerce, which runs the fraud investigation bureau (FIB), Eva Aydelman of San Gwann was first jailed in 2003 for mortgage fraud and illegal immigration. Aydelman, 50, is of Tajik nation- ality and is married to a former Is- raeli Defence Forces soldier, Simon Aydelman, 53, of Russian origin, who in April was charged with fir- ing a shot from a semi-automatic pistol at his wife in their San Gwann home. She was this week accused of mis- appropriating the money from two businessmen on the pretext of her acting as an intermediary between the men and the China Construc- tion Bank. In 2013, law enforcement offi- cials in Merseyside, UK, prosecuted Aydelman, then posing as 'Lady Geraldine Travers', an alias she was said to have appropriated from "the identity of a deceased Irish infant". In court, she had pleaded guilty to obtaining services and property by deception and had another two years added to her original sentence of one year. An expert witness from the Inter- national Chamber of Commerce's financial investigation bureau (FIB) played a key role in winning the con- viction, for a scam that involved an insurance financial guarantee bond that had been constructed entirely from scratch by Aydelman. Police discovered that Aydelman sold two of these bonds, each with a face value of US $5 million, to two Czech lawyers who paid a total of US $620,000. In order to dupe them, she travelled by private jet to the Czech Republic, hoping to give the illusion of a successful business- woman conducting business on be- half of a credible bank. FIB's role was to discover that the firm listed as the issuer of the bonds, the General People's Insur- ance Company, had been defunct since 1999, after its licence was re- voked by the Slovak Republic's min- istry of finance. Maltese fraud Ayldeman was this week accused of having convinced the business- men to open bank accounts in Hong Kong and insurance policies for a €17.5 million credit facility. But she was later found to have allegedly re- produced their signatures for a loan facility that had not been taken out. She pleaded not guilty to fraud, misappropriation, forgery, making use of forged documents and with acting as a financial institution or intermediary when not in posses- sion of the requisite licence. Her defence lawyer, Roberto Mon- talto told the court the woman had strong ties with the island and a clean conviction sheet. "Aydelman stands charged here because of a financial transaction gone wrong… Before complaining to the Com- missioner of Police, the injured party made no attempt to retrieve the money owed through the civil courts." Aydelman appeared to lose con- sciousness towards the end of the sitting, slumping into the arms of a young woman who is thought to be a close relative. She was taken to hospital by ambulance after her ar- raignment. Parties clash over security concerns and suspension of Schengen rules THE government rebuked the Opposition for what the Office of the Prime Minister called a fail- ure to recognise a 'genuine sense of national unity and pride' dur- ing the recent international sum- mits held on the island. Earlier on Tuesday, the PN said that Opposition leader Simon Busuttil's call for cooperation on national security had been met with a divisive speech in Parlia- ment by Home Affairs Minister Carmelo Abela. "Instead of accepting the Op- position's call, he launched a senseless tirade against the Leader of the Opposition. It has now become a distinctive feature of the Labour government to sow division instead of unity," the PN said. "It is ridiculous that Abela at- tacked the Opposition on secu- rity when he has single-handedly presided over the most serious security breach in our country in the last years. Abela is po- litically responsible for Identity Malta which has issued 14,000 residence permits to non-EU na- tionals in just one year. And for 7,000 visas granted by the Mal- tese consulate in Algeria in just 18 months. These permits and visas have been riddled with al- legations of corruption and a number of people have even been arraigned in Court." The PN said that the govern- ment had re-imposed controls with Schengen countries despite claiming that no security risks came from Europe, without con- vening a meeting of the Security Committee. "This is the real contradiction coming from a government and a minister that are more interested in sowing division than working for unity. On its part, the Opposi- tion continues to call for a mature approach on security but it will never refrain from pointing out where the minister and his gov- ernment are getting it wrong." In its reaction, the OPM ac- cused the Opposition of being irresponsible by sowing doubt about Malta's security ahead of two world summits. "The Opposition leader has spared no opportunity to put all responsibility solely on the Prime Minister, basically saying that if anything went wrong, it would be the Prime Minister who would have to answer for it." "The Prime Minister shoul- dered that responsibility and took all the necessary decisions and measures to keep Maltese and guests safe. This included keeping the Schengen rules sus- pended, something the Leader of the Opposition disagreed with." The Opposition continued with its scaremongering during the events, through its media, the OPM said. "Now that Malta, through the professional work of its Forces, was successful in get- ting the job done, the Opposition wants to jump on the bandwagon and is calling for 'unity'." "The government is convinced that there was a genuine sense of national unity and pride that the Opposition failed to notice during these events. It is up to the Opposition to make up for this failure and to show some responsibility. The first sign should be to stop using its media to try to dent the results Malta is achieving." The ugly wall (right) is being proposed to replace the existing railing (left), so that onlookers would not be able to look down into the field below