Career
Despite having lived in Australia since the 1960s, he is not a citizen of the country. The New South Wales Police Force tried to bar Vella from re-entering Australia then, but he was eventually allowed to return. In 2014 Vella visited Malta, and his residency visa was cancelled by the Minister for Immigration and Border Protection.
Vella tried to appeal in the High Court in October 2015, but was not permitted to
Vella was born into a strict Catholic family in Malta and was one of eleven children. He began work at the age of eight, carrying buckets of water on a building site for 30 cents a day, and is functionally illiterate.
He and his family then moved to Australia in the 1960s and established a strawberry farm near Horsley Park, New South Wales. In his 20s, he sometimes worked two or three jobs at a time.
As a bouncer, labourer and bricklayer.
After a serious road accident, he received A$225,000 in compensation and used this money to set up a business importing and selling motorcycles. In 1990, police found a $15,000 stash of marijuana while searching his home, which they believed to be a methamphetamine factory. He received a fairly light sentence: 18-months of two-nights-a-week prison, and two-days-a-week community service.
He has also been arrested, but not convicted, of a number of other crimes including stabbing two men and assaulting a woman.
He was freed on appeal after being given six months in jail for the latter. He also claimed $300,000 was fraudulently withdrawn from their joint bank accountant
On June 16, 2014, Immigration Minister Scott Morrison cancelled Vella"s residency visa on character grounds while Vella was visiting Malta. Vella attempted to challenge the action in the High Court of Australia, but on 16 October 2015 the court refused his application for leave to appeal.
