Well-known fraudster Olaf Cini, who has six convictions for fraud on his criminal record, was yesterday jailed for a year after the court heard how he convinced a woman that he would open a travel agency on her behalf and defrauded her out of Lm9,000.

Cini, 45, from Paola, was jailed for a year by magistrate Giovanni Grixti after hearing that Cini had asked Angela Hathaway for Lm9,000, promising to set up a travel agency which he would name Angela Sky Tours.

The court also heard that Cini lied to Ms Hathaway and told her that his name was Stefan Stiliatis and that his mother’s maiden surname was Casapinta Moroni Viani. He told Ms Hathaway that he would set up a travel agency and asked her for Lm9,000 in order to do so.

The court heard how Ms Hathaway got to know Cini after she let someone use her mobile to make a phone call. Some time later she received a text message asking her to meet because he liked her voice.

When, eventually, she met him, he told her that his mother’s maiden surname was Casapinta Moroni Viani. Moroni Viani is the surname of some of her relatives.

Olaf Cini told her that his name was Stefan Stiliatis and when he met her, in all around 15 times, he told her that he has a penthouse in Sliema and owned a BMW Series 3. He also told her that he was a marketing executive with a renowned company and that his office was at the Portomaso Tower.

The court heard that after she had given him the Lm9,000 and the travel agency he promised had not been set up yet, she asked him to give her back her money but he always came up with various excuses and never paid her back. In view of this, she commissioned a private investigator to look into the matter who informed her that the name Cini had given her did not exist and that the information he had told her was all false.

The court heard how Cini admitted with the police that he had been given Lm9,000 after he promised Ms Hathaway that he would open a travel agency.

Handing down his judgement, Magistrate Grixti noted that Cini had been found guilty of fraud on various occasions and after taking into consideration that he was a relapser, he jailed him for a year.

Police inspector Angelo Gafa prosecuted.