Prime Minister was lawyer to Tal-Qasab dealership involved in mileage racket

Robert Abela had acted as a lawyer to the Spiteri family, now involved in the second-hand car mileage racket, a spokesperson for the Prime Minister has confirmed.

Abela appears in a photo at Castille alongside Alex Spiteri, one of the brothers who operate the Tal-Qasab car dealership in Qormi that has scammed consumers by altering the mileage on cars imported from Japan.

The photo was uploaded on Facebook in September 2021 by Alex Spiteri. Spiteri claims in the post that he was invited to Castille and expresses ‘pride’ at meeting the Prime Minister.

Asked whether the Prime Minister had any form of commercial, professional or personal relationship with the Spiteri brothers, a spokesperson told MaltaToday Abela had no commercial or personal dealings with Alex Spiteri or his company.

However, the spokesperson added: “Dr Abela had, in the past, acted as a lawyer to the Spiteri family in civil proceedings before the Courts of Justice.”

The Facebook photo and post put up by Alex Spiteri in September 2021

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Asked about the reason for the meeting at Castille with Alex Spiteri, Abela’s spokesperson said “the Prime Minister is regularly asked, as happened in this case, to meet various people and organisations from all walks of life”. He did not elaborate.

Alex Spiteri operates the Tal-Qasab Autosales dealership in Qormi along with his brother Chris Spiteri. The company has altered the mileage on cars imported from Japan before selling them to unsuspecting consumers. Another company, Rokku Autodealer of Għaxaq, operated by Roderick Vella, is also involved in the racket that has seen hundreds of consumers cheated.

Without entering into the merits of the mileage racket, the spokesperson said the Prime Minister denounces all forms of illegal activity.

“As is publicly known, investigations are currently ongoing in connection with this case. Any public figure has to be cautious in his public statements in order not to prejudice these investigations. Without any reference to a specific case, it is natural that the Prime Minister denounces all forms of illegal activity,” the spokesperson said.

Agius Saliba: ‘I never had any professional, commercial or personal relationship’

Meanwhile, Labour MEP Alex Agius Saliba, who also appears in several photos with the Spiteri brothers, including one where he is dining with them, has told MaltaToday he has never had “any professional, commercial or personal relationship” with them.

“I met Alex Spiteri while doing door-to-door visits in the vicinity of his showroom during the MEP election campaign in 2019. He had told me that he was a Nationalist and appreciated that I did not skip him and spoke to him just the same. Since then I met him on about four other occasions, including when my wife bought a car from him. The car was bought by bank transfers, not cash, and everything is accounted for,” Agius Saliba said.

Alex Agius Saliba dining with brothers Alex Spiteri and Chris Spiteri

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The MEP said that when MaltaToday broke the story he checked whether the vehicle his wife bought was scammed but it was imported from the UK not Japan.

Commenting on the Facebook photo showing him dining with the brothers, Agius Saliba said that he had been invited for that meal. 

The MEP said that he never invited the Salibas to his political or personal activities and insisted he never took any donations from them.

“Alex Spiteri never spoke to me about the way he operates and after this case came to light I did not make any contact with him. He used to follow my work in the European Parliament and shortly after my daughter was born, around two years ago, he invited me to his son’s birthday party. I had informed him that I could not attend because my wife had just given birth. This was around August 2020. He continued messaging me and out of courtesy I went to leave a present for his son and left after 15 minutes,” Agius Saliba explained.

The MEP said that he got to know about this scam from the media like everyone else.