Ex-MP gets two years for fraud

A former MP who was given six suspended sentences was yesterday jailed for two years after failing to pay back victims he had defrauded of about €6,500.

Sandro Schembri Adami, 48, from Valletta, was in July 2010 ordered to pay back nearly €74,000 to 16 clients. After failing to comply, two of them filed a complaint that led to his imprisonment.

Dr Schembri Adami had been given a two-year jail term suspended for four years for keeping for himself money he had collected from clients as duty on property transfers.

The court had opted to suspend the jail term because he had argued that in jail he would not be able to pay the victims back.

Then last year, Dr Schembri Adami asked the Court of Criminal Appeal to revoke the order to pay the €74,000 back, arguing that he could not work as a notary and had no assets.

However, then Chief Justice Vincent De Gaetano, who was presiding over the appeal, said Dr Schembri Adami should have been put behind bars and not given a suspended sentence, particularly if he was not in a position to pay the money back.

Victor and Carmela Borg subsequently filed an application in court complaining that they had not been paid the €6,500. Dr Schembri Adami had replied that he would be in a position to pay them only if he found a job.

Mr Justice Michael Mallia decreed yesterday that Dr Schembri Adami had failed to abide by the court’s order and so he brought into force the suspended jail term and imprisoned him for two years.