False insurance claim leads to suspended sentence

A Zebbuġ man has been sentenced to six months imprisonment, suspended for three years, after a court found him guilty of attempting to defraud his insurer following a traffic collision.

37-year-old Gaetano Farrugia was, however, declared not guilty of giving false testimony in criminal proceedings and of trying to make a €5000 profit.

The case relates to a hit and run incident which took place on 9 November 2009, in Triq il-Kappella, San Gwann, which involved four vehicles; a Land Rover Discovery, a Toyota Vitz, a Morris Marina and a Toyota Hilux.

On the day of the accident, the driver of the Hilux pickup truck lost control of his vehicle, careening into a parked Land Rover. Such was the violence of the impact that the Land Rover hit a Toyota Vitz, which was parked in front of it. The Vitz, in turn, hit the Morris Marina.

Kevin Tanti, who was at the wheel of the Hilux, fled the scene without reporting the incident to the authorities.

Tanti’s car was registered under the name of a third party, whom Tanti contacted in order to arrange its repair. However, the cost was estimated to be beyond his means and so he attempted to claim the money from his insurance company.

A police investigation revealed that Kevin Tanti had met with Gaetano Farrugia and agreed to file a false bumper-to-bumper claim with the insurance company, which would allow Tanti to have the car repaired at the insurer’s expense. Farrugia was also to be paid under this arrangement.

Three days after the accident, Farrugia filed an insurance claim with Citadel insurance in which he said that the two cars had collided as Farrugia was driving out of his garage.

The Court found Farrugia guilty of attempted fraud in view of the fact that he had not signed the claim and it had not been processed.