A Magistrates’ Court has instructed the police commissioner to press charges against lawyer Alessandro Lia over suspected complicity in the fraudulent transfer of a vehicle that was meant to be scrapped.
The court said that while Lia made no financial gain in the case, he may have been an accomplice to fraud.
The issue stems from challenge proceedings filed in March against the police commissioner by Victor Sant seeking criminal action against his former son-in-law, lawyer Alessandro Lia, for suspected complicity in fraud and falsification.
Lia is also Commissioner for Justice and a Broadcasting Authority member.
When testifying at length in the proceedings, Sant explained the issue began when he expressed his thoughts about parting with his Renault Megane.
He had broached the subject in the presence of his close family members who, at the time, included Lia.
His then son-in-law had promptly pointed out that the vehicle was scrap material and offered to handle the matter for Sant.
Sant took up that suggestion, handing over the car and logbook to Lia.
Time went by and Sant received no further update.
Quite a long while later, when he asked Lia about the car, the lawyer informed him that all he managed to get for the vehicle was €100.
Suspicious, Sant emailed Lia for further details but the email went unanswered.
Then he called Transport Malta.
That was when Sant found out that the car had actually been transferred to a third party rather than being scrapped.
Sant’s ID card and signed declaration were necessary for the transfer.
Yet Sant insisted that he never signed the declaration and the signature on the form handed to Transport Malta was not his.
Since Lia never explained exactly what happened to Sant’s car and the events that followed, the court hearing the challenge stated that it was worried about the “mens rea” (criminal intention).
Lia made no monetary gain, observed Magistrate Claire Stafrace Zammit who was assigned the case by the Chief Justice.
However, the lawyer might have been an accomplice in the fraud.
As for the falsification in the TM document, that could only be determined through criminal proceedings by a court-appointed calligraphy expert who would examine the signature on the document.
The court thus upheld Sant’s challenge and ordered the registrar of the law courts to serve a copy of the judgment upon the police commissioner and the Attorney General.