A disgraced notary was handed another suspended jail term on Tuesday for misappropriating funds which were taken from clients for stamp duty and taxes but whose properties were not registered.

Pierre Falzon, 65, was given a two-year jail term suspended for four years after being convicted by Magistrate Ann Marie Thake of misappropriating funds from clients on or before August 2012.

The clients had gone to him, as a notary, to register properties they were buying in Tarxien, Iklin, Mosta, St Paul’s Bay, and Birżebbuġa.

The court heard how he took thousands of euros from clients to register the properties but failed to do so. In some cases, the properties were eventually registered, but only after issues were flagged. This still constituted misappropriation of funds, since the clients had trusted him with their money to act immediately and in accordance with the law.

The court also heard that in most cases the notary paid back the money, except in one instance where he said his assets were frozen before he could refund €54,000.

In finding him guilty, the magistrate noted his age and that the case in court had dragged on for 13 years. She handed down a suspended jail term, ordered him to pay the €54,000, and placed him under perpetual interdiction.

This was not the notary’s first brush with the law.

In July last year, he was handed a suspended jail – 0ne-year prison term suspended for three years –  for misappropriating funds given to him by clients to settle taxes due when they bought two garages.

In 2021 he was sentenced to two years in prison after being found guilty of complicity in fraud. In 2025 an appeal court converted that effective jail term into a two-year prison sentence suspended for four years. He no longer holds a warrant.