A man who claims to be the son of business magnate Tumas Fenech has been spared a six-year jail term for heroin trafficking after a court found he had cleaned up his act in the past 20 years.

Victor Buttigieg, 49, was first arrested in connection with the case back in 2002, when police searched his home and found eight sachets filled with a total of 48.7 grams of heroin that turned out to be 30 per cent pure.

He had argued that his drug dealer had forced him to buy that large amount and given it to him distributed in various sachets.

A magistrate’s court did not believe that version of events and noted that Buttigieg had a long criminal record, with convictions for drug-related crimes as well as unlicensed possession of a weapon.

Buttigieg has claimed that he is an heir to the Tumas business empire and that the Fenech family has refused his demands for DNA testing to settle the matter, which is currently in court.

The Fenech family has dismissed the issue as a private matter and said that most of his requests have been refused by the court.

In 2015, Buttigieg was sentenced to six years and ordered to pay a €4,000 fine in connection with his heroin arrest. He appealed that decision.

Later that year, lawmakers introduced new legislation allowing drug offenders to be judged by a drug court under certain conditions. Such a court is focused on rehabilitation rather than punishment and is empowered to refer offenders to rehabilitation while dishing out lighter sentences.

In 2018, Buttigieg applied to have his case heard by a drug court, and had that request accepted.

On Friday, that decision bore fruit.

In a decision by Madam Justice Edwina Grima, the court of criminal appeal revoked Buttigieg’s six-year jail sentence and substituted it for a one-year sentence, suspended for three years. It also reduced the €4,000 fine he was ordered to pay to €600.

The decision was taken on the basis of a report by the Drug Rehabilitation Board, which in 2021 reported that Buttigieg, who has a long history of drug abuse and multiple court cases related to his addiction, had responded well to treatment.

He had consistently provided urine samples when asked, all of which resulted negative, and had reintegrated himself into society and found a job, the court noted.

It also noted the significant amount of time that had passed since he was first charged with the crime.

The court confirmed a decision to charge Buttigieg €217 in court fees and also ordered that the heroin seized from his home back in 2002 be destroyed.

Lawyers Franco Debono and Francesca Zarb were defence counsel.