A fake mailbox led police to uncover a rental scam operated out of a barber shop.
Harold Mamo, 56, was on Friday accused of money laundering and fraud for allegedly giving third-country nationals fake rental contracts to help them acquire residency in Malta.
Sources said police found 1,500 fake lease agreements upon searching his apartment.
Inspector Karl Roberts said police started investigating after social media posts about a fake mailbox being installed on a house façade were flagged to them.
Roberts said the owner of the Msida property discovered the fake mailbox when she went to check on the vacant property, which her mother used to live in.
A few days later, the woman noticed that letters from the government's identity agency Identita' started showing up in the mailbox.
The letters contained appointments for third-country nationals to pick up documents linked to their residency applications, the inspector said.
Police found that several third-country nationals were registered as living at the house. The woman confirmed she had not rented out the property to anyone.
Police questioned the letterbox residents, who confirmed Mamo gave them the fake rental contracts.
The inspector said Mamo operated the scam out of an office inside a Gwardamangia barber shop.
Various third-country nationals were observed entering the barber shop, prosecutors said.
Searches at Mamo’s apartment yielded €9,000 in cash and fake lease agreements.
Roberts said the arrest was the fruit of police work and not a magisterial inquiry.
The suspect was first spoken to by the police in August and has been on police bail since then.
Prosecutors opposed bail, saying Mamo had already disobeyed police orders not to speak to an alleged accomplice.
The accomplice admitted to police that he helped Mamo install the fake mailboxes.
Investigators said over 20 witnesses are yet to testify in the case.
Magistrate Charmaine Galea denied bail.
Lawyers Jose Herrera and Anita Giordimaina appeared for the accused.
Andrea Zammit and Manuel Grech from the Attorney General’s office prosecuted, along with inspectors Tonjoe Farrugia and Karl Roberts.