Car dealer cleared of claiming 238% VAT refund due to inadmissible evidence

A car dealer has been cleared of massively inflating the value of two fiscal receipts to get a higher VAT refund because neither the original receipts nor authenticated copies had been exhibited in court.

Charles Bianco, 48, director of Western Company Ltd which runs a car dealership, was charged with having submitted two tampered receipts to the VAT department in an attempt to claim a higher refund.

The receipts were noticed when VAT inspectors were carrying out a routine investigation. The inspectors saw that one €60 receipt had apparently been changed to read €6,000. The value of another €35 receipt was allegedly inflated by a factor of 238 and made out to read €8,350.

Bianco had consistently denied the allegations when confronted by his superiors and had explained that the two suspicious receipts had been handed over to him by his former business partner Joseph Grima 'il-Vasu', who had since fled the islands after running up €1.7 million in debts.

In her judgment acquitting the man, magistrate Consuelo Scerri Herrera noted that despite the VAT department having obtained the original receipts, these documents had not been produced as evidence.

Copies of original documents are admissible as evidence in criminal proceedings only if duly authenticated, the court observed, saying it would not set this principle aside.

The court criticised the police for pressing charges solely on the strength of a complaint by the VAT without collecting all the evidence first, as per established legal principles.

Bianco was found not guilty and released.

Inspector Maurice Curmi prosecuted.

Lawyers Michael and Lucio Sciriha were defence counsel.