Car-import scammer in court again

The man who was jailed for nine years this week after he admitted to defrauding several individuals in a car importation scam appeared in court again today charged with trying to buy a Rolex watch using a stolen and forged cheque.

31- year old Duncan Buttigieg, from Ghaxaq, was arraigned before Magistrate Audrey Demicoli accused of defrauding both the Maltese agents for Rolex watches and the man to whom he sold the watch. 

Buttigieg received a nine year sentence last Wednesday after he pleaded guilty to charges of defrauding people who had paid him deposits of up to €6,000 to import cars from the UK. 

Police Inspector Anna Marie Xuereb told the court how the accused was alleged to have falsified a €5000 cheque to buy the Rolex. The police investigations began after the cheque bounced.

It transpired that the cheque was stolen from Buttigieg’s former girlfriend, Louise Farrugia, who later told the police that she had never given her chequebook to anyone. 

Buttigieg later contacted a keen watch collector, one Andrea Scicluna Calleja, whom he told that the Rolex was an unwanted gift, claiming that he needed the money to pay for his six-year-old son’s cancer treatment. Scicluna Calleja paid €2,000 in cash for the watch. 

Taking the witness stand, Scicluna Calleja said that upon opening the package, he found a receipt at the bottom of the box which indicated that the watch had only been purchased two hours before, by cheque.

He immediately informed Malcolm Lowell, the Managing Director of Rolex’s Malta agent and sure enough, within a few days the bank informed Lowell that the cheque had bounced. The police began their investigations shortly afer.

Both Lowell and Scicluna Calleja told the court how they then looked up Buttigieg's name on the internet and found that he had a long history of similar cases. 

As the cheque was not honoured, the company was never paid for the watch and Scicluna Calleja remained €2,000 out of pocket. 

Inspector Xuereb told the court how the police had also recovered fake MATSEC certificates and another certificate, ostensibly issued by the Institute of Maltese Journalists, identifying Buttigieg as a journalist. Buttigieg claimed he had made these "just for fun". 

Magistrate Demicoli held that there was sufficient prima facie evidence for Buttigieg to be indicted. 

Buttigieg later approached journalists in court with his reaction to the reports on his conviction for the car scam, claiming that he had only admitted to the charges because magistrate Ian Farrugia, who had sentenced him, had “threatened him that he would send him to jail for 35 years”. He told reporters that only 42 of the 77 people he had defrauded had not been repaid, claiming to owe the remainder around €40,000, and that he “was willing to pay”. 

He said he is appealing the nine-year jail term on a dubious technicality, claiming that the first court should have dealt with the multiple fraud cases as a continuous crime.