Fraudster posed as bank owner and CIA agent

An Albanian woman pretended she was the owner of HSBC and a member of the CIA to get herself off the hook after she was caught defrauding an upmarket shop in an €11,650 spree, a court heard yesterday.

The 34-year-old bought clothing and a handbag from the shops Nathalie and Porto in the Portomaso shopping complex on October 2007, when she knew that her current account had been overdrawn for months.

HSBC bank had notified her several times that her account was overdrawn and that the cheques issued to the shops could not be honoured but the woman ignored the warnings.

Taking the witness stand, the woman said that she thought "the millions of euros" deposited in her other bank accounts were being transferred automatically to her Maltese account.

In an attempt to exculpate herself, she told the police in her statement that she was a member of the "CIA or Interpol", that she had diplomatic immunity and that she also owned HSBC worldwide.

The woman had been facing financial difficulties and suffering from psychological problems to the extent that she lost her job as a nurse in St Luke's hospital due to behavioural problems.

Magistrate Edwina Grima said that the woman tried to deceive her victims into believing that she could afford to pay for the items while knowing that she could not.

The court said she also duped the owners of an apartment where she used to live and the Hilton hotel when she rented a room.

Taking into consideration that she had a clean criminal record, the fact that most of the items have been returned, as well as her temporary psychological difficulties, Magistrate Grima jailed her for 18 months suspended for three years.

Police Inspector Angelo Gafa' prosecuted.