Court says Ryan Schembri was 'never a criminal fugitive' as it grants him bail

Updated 4.30pm

Former More supermarkets boss Ryan Schembri has been granted bail with a court saying he was never technically a criminal fugitive.  

The head of the now defunct chain was extradited from Scotland and brought to Malta in May to face charges of fraud and money laundering estimated to be in the tens of millions of euros. 

It had taken police nearly seven years to issue an international arrest warrant for him, despite a long list of people claiming he had run off with their money. 

In a decree handed down on Friday, presiding magistrate Donatella Frendo Dimech said Schembri can never be considered a “criminal fugitive” since there were no criminal proceedings nor investigations targeting him when he left Malta in 2014.  

The decree was read out in open court when Schembri was escorted to face ongoing proceedings for alleged money laundering, fraud, making fraudulent gains, offering financial investment services without a licence and making use of forged documents.  

Earlier this week, the court heard other creditors testify about how they lost their investments in Schembri’s business when he left the country in 2014, leaving behind a trail of disgruntled...