Author of new Dom Mintoff biography charged with €44,500 fraud

Josef Grech, 31 of Fgura, the founder of the 'Dom Mintoff Foundation' and author of a new biography on the late Labour Party leader, was charged this afternoon with defrauding a car dealer out of €44,500, when he wrote three cheques payable to himself with inflated figures from what they were originally meant to be worth.

Grech, who is currently serving jail time for other cases of fraud, faced the car dealer in court who reported him to the police after discovering that his bank account had been cleaned out.

 Josef Grech

Car dealer Vincent Muscat testified before Magistrate Neville Camilleri that Grech had gone to his dealership in November 2011 accompanied by a woman and a little girl. "He looked an honest family man, and we agreed on the price. He asked me for €800 and I told him I was prepared to give him €600. I am an illiterate man, and usually it's my son who helps me write out the cheques, but Grech offered to write them for me.

"I trusted him, and rather than writing €600 I later find out that he wrote €16,000, and this happened on other occasions when he returned a few days later with other cars, which were valued at €600 and €125, and Grech converted into another €16,000 and €1,250," Muscat said.

When the witness had gone to the bank, he was informed that he had no more money and urged the bank to investigate what was going on.

A quick check within the bank's system immediately showed that Grech had presented his identity card when cashing out the cheques. Inspector Rennie Stivala from the Economic Crimes Unit said that Grech had admitted to cashing the chques, but denied changing their values.

The case continues.

Rejected

Josef Grech, who calls himself 'Prof. Grech' said that he will launch his book on Dom Mintoff next month when he is expected to be released from prison. He still faces a number of other cases related to fraud, and is serving time for defrauding Bank of Valletta, HSBC and the government.

The Labour Party and Dom Mintoff's family have rejected Grech's foundation, and had even called on the Police to investigate the people behind the foundation.

Grech says that he used to meet Dom Mintoff together with former Labour MP Sandro Schembri Adami, who is also serving time in jail for fraud.