Police have explained in court how their investigations into a disability benefit racket led them to the door of family doctor and former PL MP Silvio Grixti.

Inspector Anthony Scerri testified that police started investigating when the Office of the Prime Minister emailed them about a severe disability benefit applicant called Frank Farrugia who allegedly presented three false certificates.

They were signed by psychiatrist Peter Muscat, who told police that Farrugia wasn’t his patient and that he didn’t sign the document himself.

Police arrested Farrugia, who admitted to presenting falsified documents to a government board to obtain severe disability benefits but said that Grixti had sorted out the paperwork.

Farrugia testified that Grixti had issued him with sick leave certificates between September 2020 and March 2021 and had asked him to see him when the medical board summoned him for an interview about a disability benefit application.

He said that Grixti typed a letter on his laptop, signed by Peter Muscat, and told him to present it to the board. He said he informed Grixti that Muscat had never examined him but that the doctor assured him he didn’t have a problem.

“I did what he told me to because I thought it was the procedure,” he said.

Farrugia said that the medical board summoned him two more times and that, prior to each meeting, he visited Grixti’s clinic to receive another letter to present to them. The other letters were also signed by Peter Muscat.

Farrugia was charged and handed a suspended sentence after pleading guilty.

Police obtained a warrant to search Grixti’s home and clinic and seized his laptop and phone. The former MP chose to remain silent during his interrogation while Farrugia confirmed his previous statements in the doctor’s presence.

When police searched Grixti’s laptop, they found a “considerable number” of templates bearing the potentially fabricated names of other doctors.

Some templates were signed by lawyers who weren’t medical doctors and others were signed by foreign doctors based abroad.

Police also found documents from Transport Malta that were related to drivers having their licenses withdrawn after they were certified as severely disabled, a prerequisite for them to apply for disability benefits.