Deejay gets suspended jail term and must repay €4,800 in dole money

A reporter for newspaper l-orizzont and one-time DJ Charlo Lautier has been handed a suspended sentence and fined after he was convicted of benefit fraud.

Magistrate Doreen Clarke heard prosecuting police inspector Jonathan Ferris accuse Lautier of fraudulently receiving €4,869.51 in unemployment benefits whilst gainfully employed, and of running an unlicensed tour operator business.

Magistrate Clarke found him guilty as charged on the benefit fraud, handing down a 13-month prison sentence, suspended for two years. Lautier was also given six months to pay the €4,869.51 he owed to the department of Social Security.

Inspector Ferris explained that in 2012, whilst registered as unemployed, the accused had been the registered owner of ww.djcharlofuntravel.com and the contact telephone number it listed was Lautier’s personal mobile number.

Investigations revealed that he would also organise several Virtù Ferries tours and a company representative had exhibited a list of the tours he had accompanied during the January 2011 and September 2012 period.

Representatives of the Malta Tourism Authority and the Employment and Training Corporation had provided the court with documentation showing that DJ Charlo Fun Travel was licensed in the name of Alexander Lautier, listing the accused as an operator starting.

He also had been registered as a part-time employee with One Productions Ltd between January and March 2013.

The social security department had confirmed that Lautier had received unemployment benefits between March 2011 and June 2012, totalling €4869.51.

When he was called in for questioning, Lautier had released a statement in which he explained that he had failed to inform the authorities of his tour-operating activities, whilst receiving unemployment benefits, because he “considered it to be a hobby, not work.”

The court dismissed the second charge, that of operating an unlicensed tourism business, as the charges were time-barred.