Fined Lm1.6m for evading duty

An appeal court yesterday fined two businessmen Lm1.63 million between them for evading duty by removing merchandise from Customs on the strength of entries bearing a forged stamp.

Andrew Ellul Sullivan, director of Tessons Limited, and Charles Ellul Sullivan, director of J. Cachia Caruana Limited, were found guilty of making use of forged documents, defrauding the government and evading duty regularly over the two years preceding February 1992.

Andrew Ellul Sullivan was found guilty of evading Lm131,152 duty and Lm301,313.20 levy on Lm440,547.55,6 worth of merchandise, for which he was fined Lm1,012,247.10.

Charles Ellul Sullivan was found guilty of evading Lm71,255 duty and Lm210,062 levy on Lm272,714.17 worth of merchandise, for which he was fined Lm616,683.34.

The Ellul Sullivans were also sentenced to a two-year jail term suspended for four years for the crimes punishable by the Criminal Code, that is the forgery and fraud.

Andrew Ellul Sullivan was given 36 months to settle the fine at Lm28,118 per month while Charles Ellul Sullivan was given 20 months at Lm17,130.09 per month.

In default, even of one payment, the fine would be converted to a jail term.

The decision, by Mr Justice Joseph Galea Debono, in the Court of Criminal Appeal, came after the Attorney General had appealed from an acquittal handed down by the Magistrates' Court in 2001.

The Magistrates' Court had heard the case against the two Ellul Sullivans, Philip Azzopardi and Joseph Ellul Sullivan and had acquitted them on the grounds that the circumstantial evidence had not been enough to draw the link between the defendants and the crime.

Mr Justice Galea Debono yesterday confirmed the acquittal in the case against Joseph Ellul Sullivan, as a director of Tessons Limited and Azzopardi, as a director of J. Cachia Caruana Limited.

Deputy Attorney General Silvio Camilleri and Dr Stephen Tonna Lowell prosecuted.