Justice commissioner to be charged with fraud over car transfer

A magistrate has found sufficient grounds for police to press charges against Commissioner for Justice Alessandro Lia, after challenge proceedings filed by his former father-in-law. 

In a decision handed down on Thursday, Magistrate Claire Stafrace Zammit declared that there are sufficient grounds to charge Lia with complicity in fraud, malicious use of false documents and making false declarations to a public authority.

The challenge proceedings, aimed at obtaining a court judgement that would force the police to prosecute, had been filed by Magistrate Nadine Sant Lia’s father, Victor Sant, in March, alleging that Lia - his son-in-law at the time-  had fraudulently transferred Sant’s car to another man instead of scrapping it for him, and had forged his signature to do so.

Magistrate Stafrace Zammit noted that in his detailed testimony Sant had explained how he had spoken about potentially scrapping his car while talking to his daughter and her then husband, Lia. Sant claimed that Lia had immediately offered to handle the process for him, and so he had handed over his logbook to the lawyer.

But after some time passed without hearing back from Lia, Sant had asked him about what happened with the car, to which Lia allegedly replied he had only received €100 for the scrapped vehicle. Suspecting that something was not right, Sant had phoned Transport Malta and was informed that the car had not been scrapped and transferred to another owner instead.

But in order for that transfer to take place, Lia would have needed a copy of Sant’s ID card, which he had previously provided him with for other purposes, as well as the man’s signature. 

Magistrate Stafrace Zammit ruled that although it appeared that Lia had made little to no financial gain, there still was evidence pointing to fraud. The forgery issue could only be determined in the course of criminal proceedings against the Commissioner for Justice, and informed the Commissioner of Police that there was a prime facie case to answer in this regard.

Victor Sant was assisted by lawyers Franco Debono and Edward Gatt.