Olaf Cini, who had been jailed for a year for fraud, had his jail term increased to two years on appeal.

Mr Cini had been jailed for a year when the Magistrates' Courts found him guilty of defrauding Angela Hathaway of Lm9,000 when he convinced her he was a wealthy man of Greek descent who wanted to open a travel agency bearing her name.

The first court had heard that when Ms Hathaway got to know Mr Cini he introduced himself as Stafan Stiliatis. He told her he lived in a penthouse in Sliema, drove a BMW and worked as a marketing executive with a prestigious company based at Portomaso.

He convinced her he was going to open a travel agency for her and would call it Angela Sky Tours - for which he needed to borrow Lm9,000. She gave him the money.

But as time passed, and the travel agency was never opened, she asked for her money back. She then filed a police report and, following investigations, she learnt that Mr Stiliatis was really Mr Cini.

After evaluating the case the Magistrates' Court jailed Mr Cini for a year.

But the Attorney General filed an appeal arguing that the jail term handed down did not fall within the legal parameters.

Mr Justice David Scicluna, in the Court of Criminal Appeal, noted that Mr Cini faced a minimum jail term of two years.

For this reason the court upheld the appeal filed by the Attorney General and changed Mr Cini's jail term from one year to two.