Man handed suspended sentence after defrauding apartment seller out of €30,000

A 39-year-old man was handed a suspended sentence Wednesday after a court found him guilty of deceiving the seller of an Attard apartment into believing he would pay him an extra €30,000 when the final deed of sale was signed.

Lebanese national Firas Aboul-ezz was found guilty of defrauding developer Ethelbert Camilleri of Toncam Properties, who he entered into a promise of sale agreement with in 2016.

The promise of sale was extended several times until September 2018. The extensions signed with another company, Garnet Investments, owned by Ethelbert Camilleri’s father Anton.

After the agreement expired, Aboul-ezz contacted Camilleri saying he wanted to go ahead with the sale.

The accused even called a common friend, Amir Sultan, who rented out a shop in Paceville from Anton Camilleri – also known as “Tal-Franciz” – to mediate the discussions.

Eventually, the accused was asked to pay an additional €30,000 for the finishings of the apartment since the costs had gone up. He agreed but, according to Ethelbert Camilleri, did not want any reference to the additional sum in the final deed of sale.

The final deed of sale was signed on October 1, 2018, when Aboul-ezz also handed over a €30,000 cheque with the payee field left empty for Camilleri to fill in.

A bank representative testified that on the day of the contract being signed, the accused had €25,691 in his bank account. However, he placed a ‘stop payment’ order on the cheque via internet banking.

By the end of the day, Aboul-ezz had €30,630 in his account. The funds were gone the next day.

The developers found out about the stop payment order on the cheque when they went to deposit it, at which point Anthony Camilleri filed a police report leading to the criminal proceedings against the man.

After hearing the witnesses and analysing the evidence at hand, the court observed that Camilleri was ready to go ahead with the sale as long as Aboul-ezz paid an additional sum to the agreed price reflecting the higher costs.

The accused made the developer believe he would pay up and even went to a common friend, Sultan, to mediate the agreement.

But behind Camilleri’s back, Aboul-ezz placed a stop payment on the cheque and transferred the money out of his bank account, the court observed, adding that there was no doubt that the accused was aware of what he was doing and that the company would suffer a loss of €30,000.

“Aboul-ezz convinced Sultan that he was ready to pay €30,000. Sultan convinced Camilleri that the accused could be trusted. However, Aboul-ezz already had in mind he would not honour the agreement,” the court said, adding that the accused had fraudulently gained the amount of the bounced cheque.

The court took into consideration the serious charges levelled against the accused as well as the fact that the developer had been waiting to get paid since October 2018.

Moreover, it observed that the accused made no attempt to remedy the situation. It added that in this case, a suspended prison term would be more suitable so the accused would continue working and be in a position to pay Camilleri.

The court handed down a two-year prison sentence suspended for four years. The man was ordered to pay €10,000 immediately to Camilleri and the outstanding €20,000 were declared as a civil debt.

Magistrate Monica Vella presided over the court.