Late notary's widow doesn't remember using husband's client funds to buy a car

Rosanne Barbara Zarb was unable to recall using funds from her late husband, notary Ivan Barbara’s, client account to pay for her new car, when confronted on the witness stand, with a cheque addressed to the dealership.

In January 2022, the plaintiffs had filed a joint civil lawsuit against Barbara Zarb, demanding that she refund some €165,000 which her husband had been holding in escrow. 

The plaintiffs say that Barbara Zarb had initially told them to expect their refunds to be delayed for bureaucratic reasons, as the notary had died abroad, but had later discovered that Barbara Zarb had renounced her inheritance. 

The notary’s widow is contesting the monetary claim, through her lawyer Phyllis Aquilina.

Barbara Zarb was cross-examined by lawyer David Bonello when the case continued before madame justice Audrey Demicoli on Thursday. Bonello asked the defendant about her financial relationship with auto dealer Michael Debono Ltd. She would pay for a car that she had bought herself by means of a standing order, she replied.

The lawyer showed the witness a copy of a cheque, issued from the client account, addressed to Michael Debono Limited and asked if it had been used to pay for her car. "Yes," she replied, but then added “I don’t remember.” It was "probably" for her car, she then said.

The lawyer confronted the woman with another cheque from the client account, which was addressed to her.

Bonello asked her to explain this, in the light of her prior claims to not have been involved in her husband’s work or finances. “My husband would need money. Sometimes I would lend him money, sometimes I paid his VAT..I would remind him but he would postpone a lot.” 

Barbara Zarb told the court that her husband was “a bit disorganised” and that she would sometimes loan him money when he ended up short. This was mostly to pay VAT and other taxes, she said.

“I didn’t take the money to help myself but to help him. I would lend him money for one reason or other. I would keep a list and he would pay me back, sometimes in cash, sometimes by cheque, I didn’t pay attention to what bank account they were coming out of.”

“The last payment I made to my husband was on 29 April, he died on 30th. It was the salary of a [junior] notary.”

Bonello asked whether she found it odd that the cheque had been issued from the client account. “No,” she replied, explaining that her husband would pay for her car and deduct it from the amounts that he owed her. She denied ever using a bank overdraft facility or having even seen the cheques before.

Bonello: your statement says you had paid for everything when in India, through you Gold Card. Do you know if any monies from the client account overdraft was paid into your BOV Gold Card account? 

“I don’t know and I had no control [over it],” she replied.

The lawyer asked how she would settle her late husband’s VAT bills. “That happened more than once. Sometimes I paid in cash at MaltaPost, on one occasion I paid from my personal account,” Barbara Zarb replied, insisting that she would rely solely on the figures her husband would provide her with when filling out his VAT return.

“I wouldn’t even count the receipts. He would tell me €12,000 and I would write €12,000. I wasn’t his accountant.” Bonello asked who his accountant was. “He didn’t have one.”

“Are you an accountant by profession?” asked the lawyer. Barbara Zarb confirmed that she was. “Does this not constitute involvement in his affairs?” asked Bonello. “It was me helping him,” she replied.

The sitting was adjourned to May for BOV representatives to testify about the Gold account.