Suspended sentence for identity fraud suspect who tried to contact co-accused

A man who is facing criminal charges in connection with the Identità racket has been handed a suspended sentence after pleading guilty to breaching his bail conditions.

Bernard Attard was arraigned in court after he attempted to contact his co-accused former Identità employee Maria Rita Spiteri. His bail terms prohibited him from speaking to other individuals facing similar charges, and specifically mentioned Spiteri.

The pair are charged in connection with residence permits that were fraudulently issued to third country nationals. They are accused of money laundering and forging official documents among other charges. They deny all charges.

A court previously heard evidence from the police that Attard and Spiteri played a role in obtaining false documents, with Attard also being responsible for collecting their money.

In February, Magistrate Donatella Frendo Dimech, who is presiding over the Identità racket proceedings, granted Attard bail against a €6,000 deposit and a €6,000 personal guarantee. He was ordered to sign the bail book daily and a curfew was also imposed.

Attard was arraigned in court after Spiteri reported him to police for calling her and sending her messages over WhatsApp. The woman reported Attard to the police twice: on April 27 and May 6. She also attached the call logs and WhatsApp messages.

In her testimony, Spiteri said that Attard would leave heart emojis on photos of her children on Facebook. He also sent her messages but she did not reply to them and she found several missed calls from him.

Spiteri also testified that Attard tried to contact her indirectly through third parties.

Attard testified and confirmed that he sent messages and phoned Spiteri but claimed he was only trying to reach her to ask when the next sitting was scheduled for, since he lost the summons.

In its considerations, the court observed that Attard was clearly prohibited from contacting his co-accused. It said that if the man really needed to find out  when the next sitting was scheduled, he had several ways to do this without breaching his bail conditions.

The court also said that it did not believe this was the reason on why Attard had tried to contact Spiteri several times, noting that on May 5, the man sent a message to Spiteri saying “call me”.

It also said that it found difficult to believe that Attard wanted to get the date for the next sitting, considering that he had sent two messages some ten minutes earlier which were deleted.

“It is not true that the accused asked only about the next sitting given that he kept the message asking about the date but deleted the rest,” the court observed.

The court rejected the defence's argument that the issue was “minimal” and of little importance, and held that the accused showed “absolute disrespect” to the condition imposed on him after trying to contact Spiteri several times on two days in less than three months from when he was granted bail.

It also observed that Attard did not show any remorse for having breached the court-imposed conditions.The Court handed a one-year prison sentence suspended for two.

It revoked his bail and ordered the forfeiture of €3,000 from his deposit. The case was presided over by Magistrate Ann Marie Thake.Police inspectors Lara Butters and Christian Abela prosecuted. Lawyers José Herrera and Matthew Xuereb assisted Attard.