Lawyer questions police priorities after farmer charged with €160 forgery of registration rings

A lawyer representing a farmer facing criminal charges after allegedly re-using registration rings on his chickens to avoid the €160 expense of registering new ones, has contrasted the eager prosecution of the case with the failure to charge anyone over the Vitals scandal

A lawyer representing a farmer facing criminal charges after allegedly re-using registration rings on his chickens to avoid the €160 expense of registering new ones, has contrasted the eager prosecution of the case with the failure to charge anyone over the Vitals scandal.

42-year-old Ivan Borg, a poultry farmer from Mgarr, had been arraigned by summons, charged with forgery after inspections at his farm discovered eight purebred hens, estimated at being three years old and not the six months indicated on their paperwork.

"It's a real shame to see a farmer dragged to court over an alleged forgery worth a total of €160 when we have Vitals who stole €400 million from us and it’s as if nothing happened,” quipped lawyer David Bonello before Magistrate Astrid May Grima on Thursday. “Instead of resources being used to carry out serious investigations, they are being wasted on prosecuting ordinary citizens."

Borg had enrolled in a government scheme whereby he would receive €20 per year for every purebred “Black Maltese” chicken he kept.

The first witness, a representative from the Agriculture and Rural Payments Agency (ARPA), testified that the inspection had taken place on July 27, 2021.

He told the court that he had inspected two different fields in Mġarr, and had noted eight chickens whose age did not match their certificate. 

Bonello asked the witness, who described himself in court as an experienced breeder of poultry, whether any checks had been carried out as to when these eight hens had been ringed, but the witness replied that he did not know.

Asked by the lawyer what profit Borg had made through the alleged forgery, the witness replied that he had benefited by not having to pay for new certificates. 

A second ARPA representative also testified, explaining that under the scheme, poultry farmers needed to have a minimum of 30 ringed or microchipped Black Maltese hens and keep them for a period of five years. In return, the Government would pay the farmer €20 euros per year for each hen, which comes to a total of  €600 euros per year for every batch of 30 hens.

Replying to a question by the Court, he explained that should any of the hens die, the applicant would have to inform the authorities. In 2019, two of the accused’s hens died, followed soon after by another four, after which the Board stopped making grant payments.

The case was adjourned to June.