The man who duped a farmer into believing he was a planning official to extort thousands of euros from him has escaped a jail term on appeal.

Eugenio Gaffarena, 55, of Mqabba had been sentenced to a 19-month jail term for impersonating Mepa official Joseph Farrugia in January last year. The jail term has now been converted into a conditional discharge.

In his appeal, Mr Gaffarena argued, among other things, that the charge of relapsing did not apply in this case and that the money had been returned.

The court heard that he had demanded €15,000 from Mr Azzopardi saying that, unless the farmer paid, a structure on his land would be demolished.

Mr Azzopardi only realised he had been caught out when he went to Mepa offices and asked for Mr Farrugia, who turned out to be not the same one who had warned him about the structure.

Noting that relapsing did not result and that the victim had been reimbursed, Mr Justice David Scicluna opted to ease the severity of the punishment.