A woman convicted of misappropriating her elderly mother’s life savings and valuables has had her four-year jail term converted to a suspended sentence on appeal. 

Aloisia Mifsud Grech, 57, had been found guilty by a magistrates’ court of withdrawing over €30,000 from her mother’s bank account, selling her bonds and stocks as well as refusing to hand over the family valuables, depriving her widowed mother of the necessary funds to move into a residential home. 

It all began when the mother turned up at Birkirkara police station, claiming that the Lm50,000 in her bank account had dwindled down to Lm5,000 in a short term and cast suspicion upon one of her daughters who had been entrusted with a general power of attorney. 

The mother-of-eight, together with four of her adult children, subsequently reported that Grech had also arbitrarily sold stocks and bonds belonging to her parent and refused to return the family gold which her mother had asked her to remove from the bank safety deposit box. 

In spite of being asked by her mother, over and over again, to hand back the power of attorney, documents and credit cards, Grech stubbornly refused, insisting that she would not do so until she got “a paper from court.”

The woman was ultimately turned out of her mother’s home where she had always lived, caring for her father until his death and then continuing to care for her mother. 

During proceedings before the magistrates’ court, the accused insisted that she had always acted upon her mother's instructions, withdrawing the money to be shared among all siblings.

As for the gold, she claimed that she had refused to hand it over before she was allowed to recover her own personal possessions left behind at her mother’s home when she was denied entry.

However, the bank deposits had never made it to her siblings.

The evidence left no doubt that the accused had misappropriated her mother’s funds and valuables, leading to her conviction in 2019.

That conviction was confirmed on appeal, with the court declaring that there was sufficient proof that the mother had been demanding the power of attorney back before the bank withdrawals in March 2015.

Once her mother had verbally asked for the document, the appellant should not have used it even though it had not yet been legally and officially revoked, the court observed. 

However, the Court was not morally convinced that other withdrawals before March 2015 had been done without the mother’s consent. 

The court also took note of the fact that the gold had been returned to the mother before first judgment had been delivered, although the magistrates’ court had not been formally notified. 

When meting out punishment, the court of criminal appeal, presided over by Madam Justice Consuelo Scerri Herrera, also took note of the appellant’s age, her perfectly clean criminal record as well as a social inquiry report shedding light on her healthy upbringing, her stable lifestyle and good family relations before this episode. 

The report said that the appellant had a positive attitude throughout the case and had fully cooperated. 

It also advised psychological help for the appellant to handle her shortcomings towards her relatives and to get over the trauma of her father’s death. 

It was truly a pity that a close-knit family should break up over money issues and that an elderly mother ended up wary of trusting her own offspring, observed Madam Justice Scerri Herrera, urging children “to care for their parents with equal love and fondness as that showered upon them during their upbringing.” 

In light of all circumstances, the court, in an 81-page judgment, reduced the four-year effective jail term to a two-year term suspended for four years, confirming the refund of €30,466.25.

The court also confirmed the order for the Police Commissioner to investigate one of the appellant’s brothers for possible perjury.

Lawyers Franco Debono, Marion Camilleri and Amadeus Cachia assisted the appellant.