Duncan Buttigieg's sentences total 18 years behind bars after another fraud conviction

Ten days after being sentenced to two years’ jail on outlandish scam, conman Duncan Buttigieg – already serving 12 years for fraud – has another six year sentence imposed

Fraudster Duncan Buttigieg had 6 years added to his sentence for yet another conviction
Fraudster Duncan Buttigieg had 6 years added to his sentence for yet another conviction

Magistrate Audrey Demicoli heard Duncan Buttigieg, 31, from Ghaxaq, plead guilty to having forged a signature on a stolen cheque to purchase a luxury Rolex watch from Edwards and Lowell.

The court was told that the fraudster had been caught after he had sold it on the internet a mere two hours later. He also admitted to misappropriating a substantial amount of money entrusted to him by a woman as a deposit for a car he had promised to import from Japan.

During his arraignment, Police Inspector Anna Marie Xuereb had told the court how the police had started investigating Buttigieg after a €5,000 cheque that the accused had used to buy the Rolex, bounced.

It transpired that the cheque was stolen from Buttigieg’s former girlfriend, Louise Farrugia, who later told the police that she had never given her chequebook to anyone.

Buttigieg had contacted a keen watch collector, one Andrea Scicluna Calleja, telling him that the Rolex was an unwanted gift and claiming that he needed the money to pay for his six-year-old son’s cancer treatment. Scicluna Calleja had paid €2,000 in cash for the watch.

Scicluna Calleja had testified that upon opening the package, he had found a receipt at the bottom of the box which indicated that the watch had only been purchased two hours before, by cheque.

He immediately informed Malcolm Lowell, the Managing Director of Rolex’s Malta agent and sure enough, within a few days the bank informed Lowell that the cheque had bounced.

Both Lowell and Scicluna Calleja told the court how they then looked up Buttigieg’s name on the internet and found that he had a long history of similar cases.

As the cheque was not honoured, the company was never paid for the watch and Scicluna Calleja remained €2,000 out of pocket.

Inspector Xuereb told the court how the police had also recovered fake MATSEC certificates and another certificate, ostensibly issued by the Institute of Maltese Journalists, identifying Buttigieg as a journalist. Buttigieg claimed he had made these “just for fun”.

He was also found guilty on his own admission, of stealing a VAT receipt book in 2007 from a shop in Qawra.

In handing down a sentence of six years’ imprisonment, a punishment close to the maximum, Magistrate Audrey Demicoli observed that Buttigieg had failed to make use of the many opportunities for reform that he had been afforded, “rather, he continued down the path of criminality in a quite assiduous manner.”

Although the punishment for his individual sentences adds up to 18 years, the total which the notorious fraudster will actually serve will be less, due to the law on concurrent punishment.