A Court of Criminal Appeal has increased a well-known fraudster’s jail term by a year, after it found that the offences he committed were punishable by a minimum sentence of two years.

Last July, a Magistrates’ Court jailed 45-year-old Olaf Cini from Paola, for one year after he was found guilty of promising Josephine, known as Angela, Hathaway, he would open a travel agency on her behalf and defrauded her out of Lm9,000. He was also found guilty of falsely identifying himself to the victim.

However, Cini’s jail term was increased, following an appeal filed by the Attorney General, since the court said the offence was committed by way of acts carried out on more than one occasion.

The appeals’ court ruled that other articles should have been applied in this case and seeing that Cini’s criminal record included five other convictions for fraud, the court sentenced him to two years in prison.

Mr Justice David Scicluna presided over the case.