A man who only recently found that the surname he had grown up with was not his own has been allowed by the courts to continue using the name he had always used.

Raphael Borg, 36, found out that he was actually Grima when he applied for a police conduct certificate.

He carried out some research and found that his adoptive father, whose name he had taken when he was six, had disowned him in 1997 after separating from his mother.

Mr Borg, who was 20 at the time, had not been told about his father’s action and he never realised that his name had, as a result been changed to that of his biological father. He had not even known that Mr Borg was not his biological father.

He instituted a court case to keep using Borg but the public registrar opposed his claim saying that in 2004 the court had refused a request by a man named Nardu Balzan who wanted to be called Nardu Balzan Imqareb.

Mr Justice Robert Mangion said that Mr Borg’s was a very rare case with very particular and unfortunate circumstances. He accepted the man’s request to continue using Borg.

Lawyer Maxilene Pace appealed for Mr Borg.