A hawker imprisoned over an antique jewellery heist has been jailed for another five years for defrauding two car companies of almost €900,000.

Glen Debattista, 49, from Sliema, purchased 64 cars from the Toyota agents in Malta, worth €750,966.96, and nine Perodua vans from Rohan Motors Limited, worth €122,525.04, while pretending to be another man.

Magistrate Doreen Clarke heard that Mr Debattista had helped the man he impersonated, Raymond Cortis, in the day-to-day running of his rent-a-car business. Mr Cortis had even given him a copy of his identity card to use when on business and when purchasing cars.

The business was eventually transferred to Mr Debattista and his parents, Frank and Carmela. Between August 2001 and August 2003, Mr Debattista purchased a large number of cars using Mr Cortis’s ID card and signed documents using Mr Cortis’s name.

When Mr Debattista was arraigned in January 2009, 10 of the cars had been returned.

In explaining just how he managed to dupe his victims into believing that he was Mr Cortis, the prosecution said that he used the copy of the ID card given to him by Mr Cortis because the picture on it was dark and the face unrecognisable.

Mr Debattista had problems paying for the cars and, after coming to two repayment arrangements with the companies, they asked the court to confiscate them when they realised he was not who he claimed to be.

Magistrate Clarke noted that Mr Debattista had an “alarming” criminal record and used underhand measures and false signatures to defraud the companies.

Mr Debattista was last year jailed for three years after he admitted stealing about €330,000 worth of antique jewellery and gold together with his son Ryan, who received a suspended jail term, and their friend Carmel Hartley, 40, who was also sentenced to three years in jail.