The owners of two car dealerships have denied tampering with the mileage of more than 450 cars they imported from Japan.

Roderick and Alison Vella, 46 and 47 respectively, from Żabbar and Alexander Spiteri, 48 from Mellieħa all pleaded not guilty to money laundering, fraud and criminal conspiracy when they appeared in court on Thursday.

The court heard a Transport Malta (TM) investigation found that cars sold by Alexander Auto Dealer owned by  Spiteri, and Rokku Auto Dealer, owned by the Vellas, were found to have had their mileage rolled back by up to 110,000 kilometres. 

Pierre Montebello, TM chief officer, testified that investigations into the suspected odometer fraud were triggered by a whistleblower who turned up at the authority's reception on May 2, 2022. 

He was put through to TM official David Caruana within the Land Transport Directorate and told him there was tampering with Japan-imported vehicles. 

A sample of Japan-imported vehicles along with relative documentation were scrutinized. 

Officials checked the Jevic certificate - a physical document issued and sent with the vehicle after it had been inspected in Japan before being exported to Malta. 

The details on that certificate were compared to the VH005 form- a document that used to be filled in by police but is now handled by TM officials, Montebello explained.

The vehicle details on those two documents matched, but when they visited the Japanese website where all relative Jevic certificates were uploaded, discrepancies emerged. 

Mileage discrepancies 

For instance, one vehicle had a mileage of 97,000 km on the physical Jevic certificate, but that figure on the website was 202,000 km, Montebello told the court.

Another vehicle had a reading of 85,000km on the physical document and 195,000km on the relative website copy. 

Prior to the whistleblower’s report, TM used to carry out random checks on a relatively small sample of imported vehicles. 

“Until then we had never sensed anything wrong. But when the whistleblower gave us that tip-off, we took a larger sample and checked the Jevic certificate on the website. That’s where the discrepancy emerged," Montebello said. 

Rokku Car Dealer and Alexander Auto Dealer became the focus of Transport Malta investigations. Photo: Matthew Mirabelli

When comparing the documents, they discovered 301 vehicles with discrepancies in odometer readings. As internal checks continued, an additional 150 vehicles or so came to light. 

And when the focus turned to the importers, two particular names - Rokku and Alexander Auto Dealer - stood out, said Montebello. 

Since the suspected fraud surfaced, the system of checks adopted by TM has changed, he added.

Under cross-examination by defence lawyer Franco Debono, Montebello said that the Jevic certificate that reached the transport authority presented all the features of a genuine document and matched VH005 form. 

“It was the Jevic online that did not.”

Once the vehicles entered the Maltese port, police would inspect them to confirm that the vehicle and its relative documentation matched. 

Importer details under Section A of the form were filled in by the importer or dealer himself while Section B of the form, concerning make, model, category, colour, engine code “etc, were filled in by police,” said Montebello. 

“That form states ‘odometer reading’ too,” pointed out the defence. 

“Yes,” said the witness, confirming that all those Section B details were filled in by the police. 

“In whose presence?” pressed Debono.

“We had no idea….I cannot tell what the police did.” 

Asked by Debono how the police would physically fill in the details on the VH form, particularly with respect to the odometer reading, Montebello said that the officer would switch on the car ignition, check the reading and input the figure on the relative form. 

The physical Jevic certificate would accompany the vehicle from abroad. 

Asked about the lapse of time between the arrival of the imports in Malta and their consignment to the dealers, the witness said that it was usually a short interval. 

Dealers incur charges while the vehicles are kept under the custody of port authorities and therefore are usually released to dealers within a week or so. 

The court presided over by Magistrate Rachel Montebello, upheld the prosecution’s request for a freezing order over all assets of the accused.

The case continues in November.

AG lawyers Marthese Ellul Grech and Etienne Savona prosecuted. Lawyers Franco Debono and Jason Azzopardi are defence counsel.