Former MP Notary Sandro Schembri Adami has been given a fourth suspended jail term and generally interdicted after admitting to defrauding a couple of €2,329.

He admitted to taking the money meant to have been passed on to the government as a tax on a contract.

Last time round, in August last year, he was convicted of misappropriating €24,465 to the detriment of four people, defrauding them and forging HSBC cheques. For that he received a two-year jail term suspended for four years.

His first suspended sentence was handed down in February 2007, followed by one in June last year, after admitting to the misappropriation of €10,194 to the detriment of two people. After taking into consideration that he had cooperated with the police, he was handed down another two-year jail term suspended for four and a general interdiction of five years.

In essence the interdiction means he cannot perform any form of civil acts, such as selling or buying houses or cars, and will not be allowed to vote. Someone who is interdicted cannot sign official documents such as contracts and is not allowed to hold public office.

Lawyers described a general, perpetual interdiction as bringing someone back to the status of a minor where his or her signature "does not mean anything".

The former Labour MP became first active in student politics within the Nationalist party's youth movement. In 1998 he failed to regain his seat after falling out of favour with the Labour party.