Inspector testifies on investigations into credit card fraud

A police inspector yesterday gave an overview of her investigations which led to the arraignment of an Italian man charged with defrauding people by billing their credit cards without authorisation, and pocketing the money.

Inspector Alexandra Mamo said Carmelo Rollo ran up bills totalling more than Lm11,000. He however denied making the transactions, blaming his former business partner, Luigi Patamia and saying he had only written down the account numbers dictated to him by Patamia on a piece of paper, she said.

The inspector testified before Magistrate Consuelo Scerri Herrera in the compilation of evidence against Rollo, 46, who is pleading not guilty to defrauding credit card holders and forging their signature and other documents between June and September.

He is also charged with working at the Black Pearl Restaurant without a permit, forging an Italian identity card and using someone else's user name and password to gain entry to a computer system.

Inspector Mamo yesterday told how she had received a phone call from the security manager at HSBC, Mario Bartolo, on October 1 at about 5 p.m.

Bartolo had wanted to file a report with some urgency because of some fraudulent card transactions which were taking place.

"I asked him to come over and he told me that HSBC had granted the use of an EPOS machine to Luigi Patamia and Josette Vella on February 25 for use at the business Sapori di Calabria."

The money authorised by the machine was to be credited to their joint account.

Bartolo explained that Patamia had entered into a business arrangement with Rollo on June 7 to run the Black Pearl Restaurant but Patamia never told the bank of this arrangement.

Some time later, foreigners had complained with their banks that they had been billed for items they had never purchased. Not only that, but they had never been to Malta.

HSBC, which fielded the complaints from foreign banks, checked Patamia's account and noted that withdrawals had taken place every day from ATMs or over the counter.

The fictitious transactions totalled more than Lm11,000. Bartolo told her he had spoken to Patamia who had told him he had not even known that the machine could be operated manually.

Patamia explained about the arrangement with Rollo to operate the Black Pearl and how they agreed that the money authorised by the EPOS machine would go straight into Patamia's account since Rollo owed him money.

He explained that the Black Pearl arrangement came to an end just over a month later, on July 14, when Rollo was left to run the restaurant alone.

The complaints from credit card holders came from Australia, Austria, Belgium, the United Kingdom and the United States.

Inspector Mamo said that after hearing out Bartolo, she learnt that Patamia and his lawyer, Dr Chris Soler were at the Msida police station filing a report on the same case.

She spoke to Patamia who told her that after the arrangement on the running of the Black Pearl fell through, he left his EPOS machine at the restaurant and used to go to the bank with Rollo every day to withdraw the money from his account and give it to him.

Patamia said he had never suspected things were not quite right because Rollo always told him the restaurant was doing really well.

After she spoke to Patamia, Inspector Mamo said she received confidential information that Rollo could try to leave the island.

She said everything was happening within hours, with Bartolo phoning her at 5 p.m. and Dr Soler and his client going to the Msida police station at about 6.30 or 7 p.m.

She said that she acted on the confidential information and closed the airport and seaports to Rollo.

The next day she asked the Mobile Squad to help her locate the Peugeot 206 driven by Rollo and they stopped him near the Sapori di Calabria in Ta' Xbiex and took him to headquarters for questioning.

In the car, the police found a batch of credit card receipts and a paper listing some account numbers. Rollo told her the items were not his and Patamia had forgotten them in his car.

Inspector Mamo said she gave orders for a search to take place at the restaurant and inside Rollo's room at the Sea Pebbles but the EPOS machine was not found.

Meanwhile, she was told that Luigi Patamia and his partner Josette Vella's mother, Alfrida Camilleri, had called to see her at headquarters.

They told her that Camilleri had found the EPOS machine on the doorstep outside the Sapori di Calabria when she went to reopen the place at about 6 p.m.

Inspector Mamo said she questioned Rollo again on October 2 and he said the handwriting on the piece of paper listing the account numbers was not his.

He also denied using the machine and freely gave police a handwriting sample and insisted that he had nothing to do with the matter.

She also told how her sergeant drew her attention to the fact that Rollo's Italian identity card could have been tampered with and an investigation revealed that the stamps on the card were forged and were definitely not issued by the Questura di Ragusa.

On October 3, she spoke to him again and he released a two-page statement but did not volunteer any explanations. She kept him overnight and he asked whether he could write his own statement and she said he could.

He gave her his statement the next day and since it was handwritten in Italian and she could not understand everything she asked him to type it on her computer, which he did.

In his statement, Rollo explained that he had written the account numbers which were given to him by Patamia but that the transactions were made by Patamia who used to go to the Black Pearl early in the morning or late at night.

Inspector Mamo said she had investigated Patamia but so far she had found no evidence against him.

The case continues.

Police Inspector Alexandra Mamo is prosecuting.

Dr Deborah Schembri is appearing for the defendant while Dr Chris Soler is representing Patamia.