Magistrate warns fraudster that his sand clock is ‘running out of granules’

Magistrate Antonio Mizzi warned unemployed Joseph Friggieri, 45 of Msida, that his sand clock was running out of granules, and that the threats he says he was receiving from his creditors was "self inflicted".

Mizzi made the statement as he closed the compilation of evidence against Friggieri, who is being charged with a new case of fraud.

Friggieri - who is facing separate charges of fraud before different Magistrates, including one of defrauding a businessman of €750,000 - has already been warned by a court to pay up or be jailed.

He now stands accused of defrauding shop-owner Alexander Maggi out of €11,000 and €25,630 from Joseph Calleja. Both have not been repaid.

Ruined

Taking the witness stand, Alexander Maggi told Magistrate Antonio Mizzi that Friggieri had practically ruined him to the point that he didn't have any money to pay for his son's school, and that the school was going to expel him by the end of term.

While the bank withdrew his Platinum card it was also threatening to repossess his home, and Barclays in UK had even initiated court proceedings against him for overdrawn accounts.

Maggi said that he got to know Friggieri during a court case he had with his estranged wife. "Friggieri knew my wife's new partner who was with her that day in court and had separated us during a fight which followed."

The witness said that he happened to see Friggieri again some weeks after in Bugibba, who came over to him and shook his hand, apologising for the incident in court.

He said he noted Friggieri driving a Toyota RAV 4 SUV and was well-dressed. "He gave me the impression that he was well off, and also because he told me that he was a relation to Busy Bee confectioners."

According to the witness, Friggieri also said that he had some contracts with the Education Department, and after exchanging phone numbers, he had called him to ask him for some financial help.

The loan

"He asked me if I knew anybody who loaned money because he said he was about to be paid for his contract at the education ministry, and that he needed money to pay duties on a container with products which had just arrived," Maggi said.

He added that out of goodwill, he decided to loan Friggieri €4,500 on condition that he repays them in five days, and then another €1,500.

Maggi explained that he had withdrawn the money in cash from his own personal bank account, and had later handed him €2,700 for what he described as "registration fees, uniforms and books" for his son's admission into a Church School.

Maggi said that when remembering that Friggieri claimed to have good contacts with the education ministry, he had asked him if he could intervene to have his son enter a Church School.

"Friggieri said that it was a 'piece of cake' for him to get my son into a Church school, and asked me for €2,700 for the expenses, which I didn't have and I loaned them from my aunt who has since died and never got repaid."

According to Maggi, the accused had claimed to be speaking to a senior official at the education ministry who was arranging for his son to enter a Church school. "This official however never existed, and minister Dolores Cristina's secretary was ready to testify that the person mentioned was unknown to the entire education department."

Maggi says that Friggieri had ruined him in every aspect, and that he lost all he had.

"I sleep on a mattress, while my health has deteriorated," he said, adding that he doesn't know what further harm can be done to him at this stage.

Taking all

Joseph Friggieri is meanwhile being accused of ruining another man, Joseph Spiteri out of €750,000 who had to sell his house and lease a shop he owned because the accused duped him to believe that he would award him a big contract at Smart City Malta.

Friggieri used to pretend to have close contact with the transport minister Austin Gatt and the ministry's head of secretariat Manuel Delia.

Spiteri had said that he had even received phone calls from people saying they were either Manuel  Delia, or even even minister Gatt himself, Claudio Grech, who for some time was involved in the management of Smart City and the Central Bank Governor Prof. Josef Bonnici.

"After 20 years in Canada, where my wife and I worked hard, we came back to Malta and opened a shop, I ended up with just the clothes I had on my back," he said.

He pointed out that once the whole ploy came to light, his daughter gave him the money she had received in wedding gifts because he was literally left with nothing.