Conditional discharge for defrauding a priest

A Rabat woman was yesterday conditionally discharged for three months for defrauding a priest of over Lm3,000.

Carmela German, 62, was found guilty of defrauding Canon Gwann Azzopardi between January and June 2002 but was cleared of misappropriation after the police dropped the charges against her when the cleric withdrew his complaint.

Magistrate Jacqueline Padovani Grima heard how German, the sister of a colleague of Canon Azzopardi, asked Canon Azzopardi to lend her some money because she had to pay a property negotiator. German told the priest she had signed a contract but did not have access to her money since it was invested abroad. She explained that the property negotiator initially told her he accepted sterling but then changed his mind.

Consequently, Canon Azzopardi issued three cheques: one for Lm2,000, another for Lm500 and a third for Lm1,500 and German cashed them.

But when German did not pay him back Canon Azzopardi filed a police report and eventually dropped the charges when she did.

The magistrate heard German say she had borrowed the money for personal reasons and denied having money deposited abroad.

After evaluating the evidence, Magistrate Padovani Grima found her guilty of simple fraud after noting that German had "tricked" Canon Azzopardi into believing she needed the money to buy property by simply telling a lie and had not backed up her lie with false documents.

The magistrate noted that German paid back the money she owed and had a clean criminal record.