Magistrate orders inquiry into No Deposit Cars and company representatives

Updated at 13:13pm with MEP David Casa's statement

Magistrate Elaine Rizzo has ordered a magisterial inquiry be launched into accusations of serious crimes, including kidnapping, money laundering, theft and stalking involving persons connected to No Deposit Cars Ltd.

The magisterial inquiry will be launched into the company as well as its representatives Christian Borg, Joe Camenzuli, Luke Milton, Thorne Mangion, James Spiteri and Tyson Grech.

This will be the first time the company will be formally investigated for criminal offences after years of allegations by its clients.

In an application filed by lawyer Jason Azzopardi last April, two of the plaintiffs claimed that five or six years ago, Luke Milton and Christian Borg had engaged a “Serbian national named Alexander and a Maltese man to kidnap a Maltese youth…to force him to sign bills of exchange.”

It describes how Milton and Borg had sought to follow the movements of the Maltese man.

When they spotted him some days later, the document says, they kidnapped him, binding his hands and putting a covering over his head and throwing him into the car’s luggage boot, before driving him to a garage in Mqabba.

There, he was taken out of the car, head still covered, and tied to a chair, and beaten until he accepted to sign the 18 bills of exchange totalling €18,000.

It was “very normal” that a certain No Deposit Cars employee named Noel would engage Maltese and foreign individuals to damage vehicles that had been leased by the company in order to force the car rental clients to pay the company contractual penalties, they said.

The application says that the plaintiffs in question were also aware that “Noel” had ordered that a Citroen rented from the company be set on fire in Msida, some two or three years ago.

Cash loaded on flights

Another allegation made in the application states that Christian Borg would be spotted at the Malta International Airport carpark, loading black bags stuffed with cash into Tyson Grech’s car on a weekly to twice-weekly basis. Passengers carrying over €10,000 in cash are required by law to declare any amounts in excess of €10,000 to customs officials at the airport.

The application states that since at least 2019, Borg would call Grech up from the airport car park and after Grech would pull up alongside Borg’s Land Rover, Borg would proceed to transfer into Grech’s car “several large black bags, similar to garbage bags, but full of cash in notes of various euro denominations.” Grech would then immediately drive away.

“Without a doubt,” reads the application. “These bags would contain much, much more cash than the €10,000 permitted by law.”

“The legal presumption is that these are and were money derived from criminal activity or from the commission of a crime and therefore it is impellent to immediately begin a magisterial inquiry,” the court document states, adding that a number of witnesses are prepared to testify before the inquiring magistrate.

Lawyer Jason Azzopardi is representing the victims.

Casa welcomes court's decision

In a statement, PN MEP David Casa welcomed the court's decision to open a criminal inquiry into the allegations of money laundering, conspiracy and criminal organisation committed by Christian Borg and No Deposit Cars Malta Ltd. 

Casa through his lawyer Jason Azzopardi had also submitted a court application in April after authorities failed to investigate and prosecute Christian Borg, despite allegations of transactions that should have been flagged as money laundering risks.

 “There is no justification for the police’s failure to act when the Financial Crimes Investigations Unit had been in possession of the facts for several months. The authorities must be faster to protect citizens from criminality. Instead they protect criminals who are close to people in power,” Casa said.

He also reiterated the Bank Of Valletta’s duty to provide a public explanation as to why it did not flag the illegal deposits made by Borg to the FIAU.