An appeal by a notary to be relieved from having to pay back money he defrauded his clients was this morning turned down by the Court of Appeal.

Notary Sandro Schembri Adami was on March 12 given his fifth suspended jail term after he admitted to misappropriating €73,292 belonging to 16 people.

He admitted he had collected the money from the people as duties on property transfers but did not transfer the money to the government.

The court had given Dr Schembri Adami six months to pay the money back and imposed a two-year jail term suspended for four years after noting that he had a clean criminal record when the case was taken to court.

He had also been given a general perpetual interdiction.

In his appeal, Dr Schembri Adami argued that as he could not work as a notary anymore and had no more assets, he should not be made to pay back the money he defrauded.

In his judgement, Chief Justice Vincent de Gaetano said that the appeal was unfounded and empty.

Over a period of time and repeatedly, Dr Schembri Adami had taken other people’s money and abused of his clients’ confidence in him, prejudicing their interests.

He should have been effectively imprisoned and not given a suspended sentence, irrespective of his cooperation, especially if he was not in a position to pay back the money.

But as the prosecution had not appealed the sentence, the Appeal’s Court could not do anything about that.

Mr Justice de Gaetano said that the appeal was unfounded and fined Dr Schembri Adami €200, which, if unpaid, would be converted into 17 days of detention.

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