A pastizzerija employee efficiently challenged insurance coverage firms which had refused the renewal of his insurance policies due to cash laundering costs he was going through.
Daniel Briffa risked lacking out on his life coverage and automotive insurance coverage cowl due to a blanket freezing order issued towards him.
The 36-year-old from Birkirkara had bought a life insurance coverage coverage in 2020, saving up on it by the use of €40 month-to-month funds.
He additionally owned a Toyota Starlet 1998 mannequin that was lined by an insurance coverage coverage that was as a result of expire in Could 2023.
The person had initially been focused by police investigations over suspected prison exercise, presumably linked to medication. Throughout a police search at his residence, no medication had been discovered however a loaded revolver got here to gentle. The suspect additionally had in his possession a big variety of gold jewelry objects value 1000’s of euros.
Briffa was final yr charged underneath summons, pleading not responsible to cash laundering and fraud to the detriment of the Social Safety Division.
He was additionally charged with doc fraud, making a false declaration in addition to failing to declare his earnings with the commissioner for income between 2013 and 2020.
He was additional charged with possessing a firearm and carrying a pointed weapon and not using a police licence, in addition to relapsing.
Throughout the first listening to of his case, in June 13, 2022, the Magistrates’ Court docket issued a freezing order – synonymous with money-laundering costs – protecting all belongings of the accused, each movable and immovable, save for an annual allowance of €13,976 by way of legislation.
One yr down the road, prison proceedings nonetheless ongoing
One yr down the road, these prison proceedings are nonetheless ongoing earlier than the Magistrates’ Court docket. Nevertheless, extra just lately, Briffa encountered contemporary issues within the type of two letters he acquired from his insurers.
The primary letter issued in April was to tell him that because the firm had been served with a freezing order in Briffa’s title, it was “not able to simply accept premium funds underneath the [life] coverage for the interval that the order stays in pressure, until the court docket decrees in any other case”.
Until cost was authorised, the life coverage can be cancelled with impact from December 2023.
The next month, a second letter adopted, this time from his automotive insurance coverage firm, informing him that they “had been unable to ask renewal” of his coverage and directing him to hunt various insurance coverage cowl.
Confronted with that twin drawback, Briffa sought recourse earlier than the courts.
A second letter adopted, this time from his automotive insurance coverage firm, informing him that they had been unable to ask renewal of his coverage and directing him to hunt various insurance coverage cowl
His lawyer, David Gatt, filed an utility searching for the court docket’s authorisation to make the required funds in order to resume and save each insurance coverage insurance policies.
The legal professional normal requested representatives of each insurance coverage firms to testify in order to clarify why that they had refused to resume the insurance policies.
The essential level was to formally decide that the money owed owed to the collectors [the insurance companies] in good religion existed previous to the entry into impact of the freezing order and that the accused was the debtor, and nobody else.
The Prison Court docket, presided over by Mr Justice Neville Camilleri upheld Briffa’s requests thereby authorising him to make the relative funds on his life coverage and automotive insurance coverage.
Lawyer David Gatt is defence counsel.