Joke 'led' to alleged Lm20,000 scam

A Social Services Department clerk, charged with stealing over Lm20,000 from children's allowance funds, got the idea of creating fictitious families when people jokingly asked her to add a child to their family.

Police Inspector Ian Abdilla explained that Maria Victoria Attard told the police how she created whole families then directed payment to her bank accounts or sent government cheques to her house or her relatives', telling them they were wage arrears.

Ms Attard also confessed that she had spent all the money on house improvements and had also bought crystal items and diamond jewellery.

Inspector Abdilla was testifying before Magistrate Saviour Demicoli in the compilation of evidence against Ms Attard, 32, of Cospicua, who is pleading not guilty to using a computer, changing data and using other people's passwords to steal over Lm20,000 from children's allowance funds.

In a detailed testimony, the inspector explained that when a direct children's allowance payment was made to a closed HSBC Bank account the bank sent the payment back to the department.

The department issued a cheque to the "Hili" family who, they thought, was owed the money, and sent it by post. But the cheque returned to the department as the address was untraced. The department searched for the Hili file but could not find it and suspected something was wrong.

The police were informed and investigations began. During preliminary investigations 13 suspicious families were identified and when the police investigated further the number of families increased to 19.

The inspector explained that a close look at the 19 families showed that some were existing families who did not qualify for children's allowance, some had an additional fictitious child and others were completely fictitious.

It turned out that 76 payments had been made since 2002 amounting to Lm20,606. Twenty-five of the payments were made to a Bank of Valletta account, another 22 were made to another account at the same bank and 24 payments were made to an HSBC account. All the accounts belonged to Ms Attard.

The remaining five cheques had been posted to Ms Attard's house or that of her relatives.

Then on May 11 this year, the inspector said, the 20th family was created.

It was composed of the father, Norman Wellington, the mother, Louise, and four children - Zoe, Lisa, Lara and Maya. Identity card details were entered for the parents together with their household income for the years 2002 - 2004.

Investigations revealed that the Wellington family was totally fictitious and their ID card numbers belonged to two Italian people who lived in Malta.

The payment details entered were to an HSBC account belonging to Ms Attard. Investigations showed that the entry had been made under the user name of Ms Attard's colleague, Dorianne Marlow.

The following day, on May 12, the payment was authorised by the user name of Isabella Vassallo and later that day the Wellington family was deleted under the user name of Loraine Cassar.

On the strength of a warrant issued by a magistrate Ms Attard and Ms Marlow were called in for questioning at the department. Ms Marlow denied making any entries, looked very upset and the police realised she knew nothing.

As Ms Attard entered the room to be questioned she said: "I know what you want to speak to me about. I did everything without anyone's help", the inspector said.

After being cautioned, Ms Attard explained how she created the families and took the money but did not keep any records of all this. She also explained that she accessed her colleagues' computers when they left their desk for some time.

She seemed upset and surprised to learn that she had taken some Lm20,000.

When questioned again at the police headquarters, Ms Marlow said she had known Ms Attard for about 10 years and did not expect such things from her.

When Ms Marlow was shown the names of the Wellington children she laughed and explained how some time ago her colleague had a baby he called Lara. When talking about baby names Ms Marlow told Ms Attard she liked the names Lisa and Maya.

Ms Attard released a statement in which she admitted her involvement. She said the idea came from a joke when people asked her to "add" a child for them.

She explained that she started by making changes in addresses and sending payments to her relatives' houses. She then started transferring money to her accounts.

At times she felt her conscience weighing down on her and wanted to stop but when she needed money she did it again.

She said she had spent all the money mainly on household improvement and other items and the police asked her to return what she could.

The inspector exhibited three large boxes and a small one which contained a 45-piece crystal glass set, a crystal statuette, a cross, a decanter and a vase, an Omega watch, earrings, rings and a pendant which she said contained diamonds.

At the end of the sitting, Magistrate Demicoli ruled there were sufficient reasons for Ms Attard's indictment.