'Unemployable' Patrick Spiteri wants to travel to UK after job offer

The defence in a case against disbarred former lawyer Patrick Spiteri has slammed the prosecution for “taking 20 years to achieve nothing,” as it once again requested further relaxation of his bail conditions.

Spiteri had been arrested in Surrey, England in 2014 and extradited to Malta on serious fraud and misappropriation charges. The 55-year-old former tax law guru had been living in the UK in a €4 million country estate set over 15 acres of land, evading the Maltese authorities who wanted him to face allegations of fraud and misappropriation of some €7.4 million dating back to the turn of the century.

Having absconded to the UK, Spiteri had latterly been fending off the Maltese authorities with claims of illness which prevented him from travelling. He was successfully extradited on the third attempt in 2017 and charged under seven separate European Arrest Warrants.

But since then, no progress had been registered in his case. For a time, proceedings had been derailed by Spiteri’s claim to be suffering from Behcet’s syndrome and attempts by his defence to have him held under house arrest due to the hundreds of volumes of documents he claimed to require to prepare his defence. He was eventually granted bail on condition that he does not leave his home.

Magistrate Josette Demicoli was told this morning that recently, Spiteri had found Malta-based employment with a UK company, which would require him to travel on work-related trips every so often.

The Court of Magistrates had previously been told by his lawyer Stefano Filletti that Spiteri was now unemployable in Malta, but it had ruled this as simply a “hypothesis.” Undeterred, last week, Spiteri’s counsel summoned four leading law firm partners, two businessmen and family members to testify as to his employability. All said that although he is competent and that they trust him, the reputational damage they would incur by employing Spiteri would be crippling. It would also cause them problems with banks and the MFSA with regards to due diligence and compliance.

Spiteri had been humiliated by being forced to grovel for jobs and being refused, sometimes by old friends, submitted his lawyer. His mother in law is supporting him financially and has every interest in not having him skip bail because the bail money is hers, said the lawyer.

As the accused has by now been granted bail in the majority of the seven cases against him, Filletti argued that one could not have different courts ruling differently on bail for the same accused because that would mean that bail is being given according to subjective criteria.

The court announced that it would be making a decree on the request from chambers.

Lawyer Charles Mercieca appeared for the Attorney General’s Office.

Lawyer Stefano Filletti was defence counsel.

READ MORE: Extradited conman Patrick Spiteri claims prison inmate has scabies

Patrick Spiteri still unable to access his files, court told