Duncan Buttigieg: Notorious fraudster's prison sentence reduced on appeal

Notorious fraudster Duncan Buttigieg from Ghaxaq has had a 30-month sentence reduced by six months on appeal after a court ruled that, while he had committed fraud, he had not committed the crime of unjustified enrichment.

Buttigieg had defrauded a friend from his hometown out of some €3,400 by falsely claiming that he needed a knee operation in a private hospital. But there was no operation, something Buttigieg’s victim found out too late.

Buttigieg had pleaded guilty to fraud before Magistrate Carol Peralta in 2015 and was sentenced to 30 months in prison. He had immediately appealed the sentence.

In 2015, Buttigieg had been sentenced to nine years in prison after admitting to defrauding nearly 100 clients out of over €120,000, having taken their money as deposits for vehicles he was supposed to import from Britain, but which never arrived. A year later, he was found guilty of using a false cheque to buy a Rolex watch and jailed for another six years.

The accused had consistently protested his innocence, denying that he had ever received money from the parte civile, but the court noted that the had no explanation for an exchange of text messages with the victim, relating to the sum borrowed either.

The judgment handed down today by the Court of Criminal Appeal presided by Madam Justice Edwina Grima states that Buttigieg had been handed the money by using fraudulent means, but that the elements of the crime of unjustified enrichment had not all been proven. This because in the case of unjustified enrichment, the crime is committed the moment the object entrusted is actually used by the offender, said the judge.

That charge having been overturned, the court then reduced the man’s sentence, in part due to changes in the law which benefited the accused.

Buttigieg was sentenced to two years imprisonment and ordered to refund the €3,400 within three years.