Joe Sammut fined for working as an accountant without insurance

Accountant Joe Sammut has been fined after a court found him guilty of working as an accountant without the insurance cover required by law.

Inspector Paula Ciantar charged Sammut, a Former Labour Party treasurer and candidate who, in other proceedings is facing indictment for fraud and money laundering, with having, as a warranted accountant, failed to obtain professional indemnity cover since March 2016.

The law punishes this offence with a fine of up to €6,000 or imprisonment for up to three months for the charges – or both.

Sammut had argued that the charges were time-barred, but the court, with magistrate Donatella Frendo Dimech presiding, observed that a representative of the Accountancy Board testified that the accused still had a warrant and therefore the criminal conduct of the accused continued “to this day.”

“In the best-case scenario for the accused, the criminal action would be time-barred on 29 May 2021, two years from the date on which he admitted to the Accountancy Board that he was not covered by indemnity insurance.”

The accused had also argued that he did not have a warrant to practise as an accountant or auditor. The court, rightly, pointed out that if true, this would only serve to make the crime far more serious.

In his 2017 and 2018 Annual Returns he had indicated his intention to continue practising as a full-time sole practitioner, also specifying his warrant number. It made no sense for him to gratuitously expose himself to sanctions under the Accountancy Profession Act, said the magistrate.

Moreover, noted the court, the secretary of the Accountancy Board had testified that he had requested Sammut turn in his warrant, but that he had failed to do so and the Board had to remove the accused from the list of auditors itself.

Magistrate Frendo Dimech observed that it had been Sammut himself who wrote to the Board in May 2019 on the insurance issue, stating that “from…May 1 2016 the undersigned has been precluded from renewing his insurance policy and alternative insurance cover could not be found, despite constant attempts to do so.”

For these reasons, the court found Sammut guilty of the charge and fined him €2,000.

In other ongoing criminal proceedings, Sammut is facing charges of money laundering, fraud and misappropriation over allegations that he aided Libyan nationals obtain residency permits by creating fake companies.