Woman remanded in custody for falsified lease agreement in residency application

A Nepalese woman has been remanded in custody on charges of using a falsified lease agreement to apply for residency, due to what her lawyer says is an administrative error by Identity Malta.

Puspa Maya Tamang, 38, was arraigned before magistrate Gabriella Vella on Wednesday afternoon, charged with making a false declaration to a public authority and making use of a forged document.

Tamang, a cleaner, was arrested yesterday after a spot check carried out at her registered address revealed that she did not reside there, Police Inspector Shamus Woods told the court. Police had acted after receiving a phone call from the Head of Compliance at Identity Malta, who “requested assistance because the defendant had presented a false declaration for residency purposes.”

The lease agreement she had submitted with the application was forged, said the inspector, adding that police had checked with the owner of the property in question, who did not know the defendant.

Her lawyer, Ishmael Psaila, challenged the validity of the arrest. He told the court that months before her arrest, Tamang had informed the authorities that the lease contract she had initially submitted featured the wrong address and had then supplied the correct details.But when carrying out their spot checks, Identity Malta had used the old version of the contract, said the lawyer. 

Psaila suggested that the defendant had noticed the mistake in the contract and had even informed Identity Malta about it herself. 

The prosecuting police inspector, Shamus Woods, confirmed under cross-examination that the property in question existed but was unable to confirm whether its current occupant had been mentioned by the defendant in her statement, as another police inspector had taken it down.

Tamang pleaded not guilty to the charges. Psaila requested bail, arguing that she had been brought to Malta by a third party who had initially specified the wrong address in a contract template.  “She has family in Malta and intends to stay in Malta.”

The prosecution objected to the bail request as the woman effectively had no registered address. The defence’s claims still needed to be confirmed, said the inspector.

“You shouldn’t keep her under arrest until her claimed address is proven, you should have investigated this before arraigning her,” the lawyer hit back.

The court, in view of the doubts about the defendant’s place of residence in Malta, rejected the bail request.