A car dealer was denied bail on Thursday after pleading not guilty to fraud and money laundering involving hundreds of thousands of euro.
Bernard Attard, 30 of Zebbuġ, was targeted by police investigations following complaints by two individuals and a report by a notary flagging the suspected fraud.
The first complaint was made on October 30, 2019 while the second was filed earlier this year.
The two alleged victims claimed to have paid Attard €600,000 and €8,500, which payments were subsequently verified through searches and checks at banks.
The notary, reported that a signature and official stamp which had been used on a document, could potentially lead investigators to another €600,000 suspect fraud.
Attard’s lawyers, Edmond Cuschieri and Rachel Tua, contested the validity of the arrest, questioning why he had to be arraigned under arrest when police had long been investigating since 2019.
Instead the police chose to turn up at 6am with an arrest warrant, argued the lawyers.
However, the prosecution pointed out that the charges were based on a reasonable suspicion and investigations had involved extensive bank searches.
Moreover, citing a 2003 judgment, AG lawyer Gary Cauchi said that it was for police to decide whether to arraign under arrest or not.
Magistrate Leonard Caruana, declared the arrest valid.
Attard pleaded not guilty to alleged money laundering, defrauding three alleged victims, misappropriation, falsification and use of a public document, falsification, use of other forged documents as well as recidivism.
Defence lawyers objected to a request for a freezing order, arguing that this impacted all the accused’s property, including paraphernal and inherited assets, causing “everything to be frozen to the last cent.”
But the prosecution rebutted that the order was important even in light of the substantial sums involved, with a total amount of some €1.2 million euro and certain payments effected to banks abroad.
After hearing submissions by both parties the court upheld the request and issued an attachment and freezing order over all assets, both movable and immovable, of the accused.
During submissions on bail, the accused’s lawyers pointed out that investigations had been ongoing for two years, evidence had been gathered and besides, two of the alleged victims were abroad whilst two other persons linked to the case had been granted police bail.
Moreover, another of the alleged victims had filed a civil case against Attard and in October the presiding judge had ordered police to investigate the alleged victim.
The prosecution objected, saying that there was a real fear of tampering with evidence as well as fear of a possible future crime.
Moreover, in October 2020 the accused had allegedly spoken to the notary so that the matter might not be “blown up.”
After hearing submissions, the court turned down the request mainly because of the fear of tampering with evidence and also because at this stage the accused was not deemed sufficiently trustworthy.
The court finally urged the prosecution to summon its civilian witnesses shortly so that the arrest might not be unduly prolonged.
Inspectors Anthony Scerri and Matthew Grech prosecuted, assisted by AG lawyers Cauchi and Marthese Grech.
Lawyers Rachel Tua and Edmond Cuschieri were defence lawyers.