Public employee 'defrauded schoolkids'

(ANSA) - Trapani, January 8 - A court in the Sicilian town of Marsala on Thursday handed a former city employee a suspended nine-month sentence for charging schoolchildren for a puppet show, when the tickets should have been free.
    Former town entertainment coordinator Giacomo Maltese, 52, was found guilty of charging nursery and elementary schoolchildren 2.5 euros a ticket to see a performance of Sicily's celebrated Opera dei Pupi (Puppet Opera), when the town had already paid 4,000 euros to make sure the show would be free to the public.