Former bank employee ruins clerk in €58,000 fraud

50 year-old Joseph Francis Scerri, 50, a former HSBC bank employee, who is currently being held under preventative custody at Corradino Prisons for fraud, appeared before again before a Magistrate today, charged with defrauding businessman Mario Gauci of Birkirkara out of €58,000, by falsifying his signatures on cheuqes belonging to him.

Scerri, who served at HSBC as an IT clerk was also accused of defrauding Marcette Cefai, a clerk at HSBC Bank.

Cefai was fired from her job, losing all of her benefits three months before she was due to retire. During her 31 years of service with Mid-Med Bank and HSBC, Cefai was a witness to the heist committed in December 2007 on HSBC Bank branch in Balzan, in which €1 million were stolen.

The distraught woman, appeared before Magistrate Consuelo Scerri-Herrera this morning, claiming through her lawyer Stefano Filletti, that she was left with nothing more than a letter from the bank which terminated her employment for having trusted Scerri, a former colleague, and cashing the cheques without knowing they were stolen.

Scerri, who appeared in court wearing shorts, claimed he did not have the means to pay a lawyer and was granted legal aid. He was also charged with falsification and misappropriation.

While the court was informed that Scerri remains under investigation in connection to other cases of fraud, he was denied bail, and was remanded once more to Corradino Prisons.