A senior Identità official who received a complaint over misaddressed mail admitted it was a crime that warranted a police investigation but failed to flag it to the police himself.
Head of the ‘Compliance – Reporting’ unit – Victor Aquilina – was corresponding via e-mail with someone who had complained of receiving mail from telecoms company Epic addressed to people who do not live in their house.
Scores of people have recently started to fear identity theft and fraud, as they found mail in their letterboxes addressed to people who do not live and have never lived there.
In one of his e-mails, sent earlier this month, Aquilina told the complainant: “Since this constitutes a crime, the police should investigate. I am willing to cooperate and be called in for questioning if necessary.”
As Identità’s head of ‘compliance – reporting’, however, he did not mention he would be reporting the illegality to the police himself. Times of Malta has seen the e-mail of Aquilina, who served as a police superintendent before he was appointed in his current role at Identità.
Earlier this week, former Repubblika president Robert Aquilina said Aquilina was the same police officer who was forced to resign following an incident in 2021.
Robert Aquilina claimed that back then, while he was staging a 72-hour protest in front of the police headquarters, the then-superintendent attempted to “blackmail” him to shut him up.
‘Identità investigates every complaint’
In response to questions, an Identità spokesperson said that the format of reply is given to people who feel “an offence has been committed in [their] respect and criminal action can only be instituted by the police on the complaint of the injured party”.
“Complainants are also being advised by Identità to report the matter to the police, and that officials from Identità will assist the police in their investigations, if so requested,” she said.
“Identità furthermore informs that following the receipt of a number of complaints regarding correspondence received from private entities which were addressed to third parties and who are not known to the complainant, Identità has reported the cases to other pertinent authorities for further necessary action, including the Office of the Information and Data Protection Commissioner.”
She said that in the cases of mail received from private entities, it resulted that Identità had never issued a residence card to the people to whom the letters were addressed.
It was “an issue with a private entity”.
She added that in instances where it is suspected that the person provided incorrect information to a private entity (like Epic), Identità advises the complainant to report the matter to the police, the Office of the Information and Data Protection Commissioner and the Malta Communications Authority.
Identità investigates every complaint it receives, she said.
But the only instance where Identità goes to the police itself is when it suspects that the person to whom the mail is addressed had submitted false information or provided false documentation to the agency.
One of many misaddressed letters
The complaint about misaddressed mail was not the first of its kind.
Some received mail at their home addressed to people appearing to be third-country nationals – people they never met or heard of.
Last week, Times of Malta reported how other people discovered that their medical files contained upcoming appointments for serious tests and surgeries they did not need, data about hospital admissions they never underwent, medication they were never prescribed, by doctors they never visited, for illnesses they never had.
One man who visited a public healthcare clinic in June was even told his medical records listed him as having died in March.
The reports increased significantly after lawyer Jason Azzopardi claimed earlier this month that Maltese ID card holders were “robbed” of their identities and that several ID numbers were allegedly assigned to other people through corrupt practices at Identità.
A court judgment appeared to prove Azzopardi right, when a man was handed a suspended sentence after he admitted fixing letterboxes to residences to provide addresses for residence permits for third-country nationals.
Many cases remain largely a mystery
However, most of the other reported cases largely remain a mystery.
Investigations by the authorities are ongoing and so far, it is unclear what involvement Identità has in these cases, if any at all.
It is also unclear whether the different cases are related to each other or are separate, administrative errors which all happen to be surfacing now.
Sources close to the investigation told Times of Malta it could still transpire that the cases involving mail received from Epic were the result of an error on the company’s side.
Epic recently sent an e-mail to its employees reminding them to request and verify ID cards when handling client matters and said anyone receiving misaddressed mail should go to the police and state authorities.
Identità also said people fearing that their property is being used for ID fraud should alert it and the police.