Investigators describe detailed records of disability benefits racket payouts

The two police inspectors who led the investigation into a €6 million racket of disability benefit fraud have testified about the records which were discovered on a laptop and in handwritten ledgers.

They detailed amongst other things, the amounts creamed off the top of the disability benefit payments that had been made to healthy recipients.

In March, Doctor Silvio Grixti - a former Labour MP, and four others: Roger Agius, Emmanuel Spagnol, Dustin Caruana and Luke Saliba, had been charged with setting up and forming part of a criminal organisation, defrauding the Department of Social Security of an amount in excess of €5,000 and forging official documents.

The men are also accused of forging public documents and knowingly making use of them, making a false declaration to the public authorities and possession of items intended to be used for fraudulent purposes, as well as a separate charge of money laundering.

Grixti is accused of having provided applicants with medical certificates for disabilities which they did not suffer from in reality, allowing them to qualify for the allowance, after appearing before a medical board.

The police accuse Agius, Spagnol, Caruana and Saliba of having acted as intermediaries, who collected payments from the fraudulent beneficiaries.

Testifying about the investigation today, Inspectors Wayne Rodney Borg and Andy Rotin told magistrate Rachel Montebello that after the racket was detected, some of the people identified as having fraudulently received payments for medical benefits had told the police that they had gone to Grixti to apply for them.

The application required the signature of a medical specialist, which Grixti was not, Borg told the court.

A detailed list of the beneficiaries found on Grixti’s laptop, were grouped by their link to the different defendants, together with records of the amounts Grixti had received and the totals paid out by the Social Security Department to the fraudulent beneficiaries.

Further names to those discovered on Grixti’s laptop, were found detailed in handwritten ledgers which the police recovered from Roger Spagnol’s home, said the inspectors.

The ledgers also showed how Spagnol and Grixti had split the takings, the court was told.

Three of the beneficiaries who had been investigated by Inspector Shaun Friggieri had identified Agius either as the person they had handed the money to or as the person who had assisted them in successfully claiming the severe disability allowance.

Caruana’s name did not appear in the ledgers, Friggieri said, adding that there did not appear to have been a relationship between him and Spagnol.

A number of the beneficiaries questioned had told investigators that they were expected to hand over the first year’s benefits, some €5,000, to the person who had obtained the false documents for them.

But when the magistrate asked whether the individuals who had mentioned Grixti also told the police that they had paid the money to him, Inspector Rotin replied this had not emerged from his investigation.

The inspector told the court that Agius had released an audio-visual statement to the police in July, while assisted by his lawyers. The court was told that Agius had received a total of €43,398 in disability benefit payments between June 2016 and November 2023.

Prosecutor Abigail Caruana Vella from the Office of the Attorney General is assisting inspectors Wayne Rodney Borg, Shaun Friggieri and Andy Rotin.

Lawyers Franco Debono and Arthur Azzopardi assisting Grixti, while lawyers Jason Azzopardi and Alessandro Farrugia are appearing for Agius.

Lawyers Michael Sciriha and Roberto Spiteri are counsel to Caruana and Spagnol, and lawyers Jose Herrera and Matthew Xuereb are Saliba’s defence lawyers. Lawyer Anita Giordmaina appeared for the Department of Social Security.