Fake landlord remanded in custody over €24,000 rent deposit fraud

A serial fraudster who had been jailed in 2017 appears to have continued where she had left off, after her release from prison.

45-year-old Alexia Cross Micallef, 45, who told the court that she was currently homeless and out of a job, pleaded not guilty to nearly three dozen charges during her arraignment on Monday.

Senior police inspector Clayton Camilleri and police inspector Joseph Mallia charged the woman with 32 offences in total, 31 of them relating to fraud and misappropriation. The one charge unrelated to fraud, dealt with misuse of telecommunications equipment. 

Explaining what had led to the arrest, Inspector Mallia told magistrate Jean Paul Grech that the police had received a number of reports against Cross Micallef, which had led to the issuing of a warrant for her arrest. When police officers had not found her at her registered address, she was placed on the wanted list.

Cross Micallef was arrested at the Rabat police station yesterday, apparently having gone there after finding out that someone had filed a police report about her. When she gave her details to the police, it was noted that her name had already been flagged on the police database and she was immediately arrested.

Camilleri said that the police had received around 25 reports about the woman, all of them being filed within a span of just a few days. On some of those days, the police had received multiple reports about her, added the inspector.

The victims had all told the police that Cross Micallef would offer to rent a property to them, which they would subsequently find did not actually belong to her, was already occupied and was not on the rental market. She would collect deposits and disappear, the court was told.

This is not Cross Micallef’s first brush with the law. She had been sentenced to seven years behind bars upon her conviction for an identical scam in 2017.

Inspector Mallia told the court that the total amount defrauded was €24,000, of which around €6,000 had already been returned to the victims by the fraudster. “Whenever she would hear that a tenant had reported her to the police, she would give the deposit back to them,” explained the police inspector.

The defence asked the court to impose a ban on the publication of the woman’s name, arguing that it was very recognisable and that her daughter was being negatively affected by her reputation. 

The court, however, rejected the request, noting that it did not have any legal basis.

Bail was not requested at this stage. The court ordered that the woman be remanded in custody.

Lawyer Daniel Attard assisted the defendant.