A director of a restaurant in San Ġwann has recounted in court how an employee had stopped paying suppliers, despite emptying the safe and racking up debts of thousands of euros with those who provided him with foodstuffs.

Kurt Anastasi told Magistrate Caroline Farrugia Frendo that former employee Antonia Camilleri, 42, of Valletta, had defrauded La Rovesciata restaurant of around €80,000.

Camilleri worked as restaurant manager between 2017 and 2018, when her employment was terminated as money meant to be used to pay suppliers went missing.

Anastasi, the restaurant’s co-owner, testified he had been introduced to Camilleri by a fellow businessman who assured him she was organised and would manage almost every aspect of the business, employing staff, rostering, ordering supplies for the kitchen and also handling day-to-day management.

“We had 15 suppliers, apart from the supermarkets she would buy food from every day,” he said.

He said that he realised something was wrong when he received calls from one supplier after another asking why their outstanding invoices had not been settled.

At first, Camilleri told him that all suppliers were being paid and that there was nothing outstanding.

However, when he confronted her about the unpaid invoices, she immediately admitted she had used the money but could not remember exactly for what. She promised to return the money but this never happened.

Anastasi said he had taken back control of his businesses while chasing Camilleri for the money.

The problem took a turn for the worse when some of his suppliers began filing garnishee orders against him in an attempt to recoup the money they were owed.

He told the court Camilleri started making up every sort of excuse, including that she had forgotten an envelope with cash in a taxi and that she had a son with a “rich Maltese businessman who lived in England” and that she was sending him money for his upbringing.

The restaurateur said the woman had tried to win back his trust by going to a notary to hypothecate property as security, adding she had claimed to own a €1.2 million property at Portomaso and was expecting to inherit another property in Sliema from an elderly woman.

Anastasi said he started receiving Facebook messages from a person that Camilleri would say was the father of her son, who lived in the UK. It later transpired that the messages originated from a fake profile.

He also started receiving messages from a number he traced to a 14-year-old boy. His own investigations led him to a taxi driver who Camilleri would often call for trips since she did not drive. Anastasi said he met the taxi driver who told him Camilleri often asked to use his son’s phone claiming that hers had no credit.

The two men discovered that Camilleri would use the phone to send messages pretending to be the father of her son, who did not even exist.

The case continues.

Police Inspector Kurt Borg is prosecuting, assisted by lawyer Godwin Cini from the Office of the Attorney General.

Lawyers Franco Debono and Francesca Zarb are defence counsel.