Five people in jail over VAT offences in 2015

Five persons ended up in jail last year for offences related to the payment of VAT.

Justice Minister Owen Bonnici said that more than a hundred people had their VAT offences converted into jail time.

However, this evening in Parliament, Bonnici explained that this number does not necessarily reflect the actual number of people that had to serve jail time, as only five of the total number were actually imprisoned. All of those who ended up in prison last year, were Maltese nationals.

“In every case, the persons were given the opportunity to pay their amounts in a stipulated period,” Bonnici added.

The statistics presented in Parliament did not include the cases reported in Gozo. 

The largest number of cases related to VAT offences was recorded in 2012, with a total of 319.