An alleged middleman in the social benefits racket was signed in for his job at the public works department at the time of his arrest at his bar in Tarxien, a court heard on Monday.

Dustin Caruana, nicknamed ‘Bobo’, was arrested at the bar despite being marked as present for his shift at the ministry from 7am and 7pm, inspector Wayne Rodney Borg said in his testimony.

Some 11 beneficiaries pointed to Caruana as the person who lured them into the scheme, saying they met him at the bar.

Others said that Caruana had sourced medical certificates and medications to support their fraudulent application and advised them on how to answer when appearing before the medical board assessing disability claims.

In September last year, Times of Malta revealed that family doctor and former MP Silvio Grixti was suspected of being at the centre of a years-long racket to help hundreds of people fraudulently receive monthly disability benefits they were not entitled to.

The fraud saw the claimants receive monthly payments averaging €450 from the social security department.

More details about the alleged racket emerged on Monday when Grixti, Caruana, Luke Saliba, Roger Agius and Emmanuel Spagnol returned to court to face charges over their alleged roles in the massive disability benefit fraud.

Caruana, whose name cropped up as a suspected middleman, was originally employed at the Water Services Corporation before being seconded to the public works ministry as a watchman.

His partner and sister also benefited fraudulently through the racket, the court heard.

On the day of Caruana’s arrest, someone had signed his attendance sheet but the signatures did not match, testified the inspector.

Beneficiaries lured in ‘because of elections’

More evidence emerged as police analysed suspicious applications between May and October 2020, with arrest warrants obtained for 23 suspects, most of whom did not cooperate.

But two of those suspected of having fraudulently benefited from the scheme told police they had obtained documents from Saliba, with one saying he had done so against a €5,000 payment.

While another insisted he did not know Saliba, investigators suspected otherwise; upon his arrest, the man exited the FCID offices and headed straight to Saliba’s pastizzeria, testified Inspector Borg.

“He didn’t buy anything and left soon after,” the inspector said.

When arrested at his Msida home Saliba told police he had met Roger Agius, then Grixti’s driver, at the San Gwann boċċi club.

He said it was Agius who enticed him to apply for the severe disability allowance, saying it was being done “because the elections were approaching.” 

Saliba insisted he never kept any money for himself despite receiving over €23,000 in social benefits.

His girlfriend and other relatives also benefited from the racket and were also criminally charged, explained Borg.

The witness showed mobile phone chats between Saliba and one of the fraudulent beneficiaries which shed light on the workings of the racket, with Saliba’s contact saved as 'Luke skema' ("Luke scheme").

€6.8 million swindled across 340 cases

Income Support and Compliance general director George Cremona also testified on Monday, presenting an overview of what the racket meant for the public coffers.

By March, 321 fraudulent cases had been identified, a number that had spiralled to 340 by the date of the court hearing on Monday.

More than €6.8 million was defrauded, with less than a third (almost €1.9 million) recouped.

The court heard that in 216 cases those involved had entered into repayment agreements with the department while 68 applicants had refunded the amounts in full.

Another 61 cases did not reach any agreement. Of the 340 cases, 150 had applied for a presidential pardon.

Jason Azzopardi renounces brief as Agius’ lawyer

At the start of today’s hearing, Magistrate Rachel Montebello said that lawyer Jason Azzopardi had filed a note to inform the court that he was renouncing his client’s brief.

On Monday, Agius was unassisted.

He explained he could not engage another lawyer until he was allowed to withdraw money from his bank accounts.

But he had no problem with the court hearing witnesses as scheduled as long as his right to cross-examine them at a later stage was duly reserved.

The case continues in January.

AG lawyer Charmaine Abdilla prosecuted, together with inspectors Wayne R Borg and Shaun Friggieri. Lawyers Franco Debono and Arthur Azzopardi are counsel to Grixti.

Lawyers Michael Sciriha and Roberto Spiteri are counsel to Caruana and Spagnol.

Lawyers José Herrera and Matthew Xuereb are counsel to Saliba.