Silvio Grixti among five to be arraigned over severe disability benefit fraud

Ex-Labour MP Silvio Grixti is among those expected to be charged over their role in a large-scale fraudulent social benefit scheme.

According to the Times of Malta, Grixti and four other people are to be arraigned on 22 March. Those joining Grixti in facing criminal charges are Roger Agius, Emmanuel Spagnol, Dustin Caruana, and Luke Saliba.

Among the soon-to-be accused, Agius, who was Grixti's driver, is believed to have played a big role in the scheme. 

The operation in question enabled claimants to receive monthly payments, averaging around €450, from the social security department. The majority of those arraigned after receiving the payments have confessed to the charges and agreed to reimburse the wrongfully acquired funds, subsequently receiving suspended sentences for defrauding the government. 

Since news of the scandal broke, Grixti posted on Facebook to call the Labour Party a "monster" which destroys Labour supporters and appeases Nationalists.

Grixti lamented a lack of police action and media attention with regard to a Nationalist doctor caught selling falsified medical certificates and owning an offshore company.

Grixti was alluding to shadow health minister Stephen Spiteri, who in 2018 was caught selling medical certificates for €5 each

A judge had described the Medical Council’s disciplinary proceedings against doctor and PN MP Stephen Spiteri as a ‘classic case of a structural lack of objective impartiality’, throwing out the case