Woman who failed to arrange adoption ends up in jail

A woman who failed to procure a girl from Pakistan for would-be adoptive parents and also failed to refund some €7,000 that they had paid her, has had an 18-month suspended jail sentence converted into an effective jail term. Concetta Charles had been ordered to refund the money in a civil suit in 2004. Criminal proceedings for misappropriation were then launched. She was convicted and handed an 18-month suspended jail term. The jail term became effective after the would-e adoptive parents, Lawrence and Maria-Concetta Grima initiated fresh proceedings where they explained that the refund ordered by the court had not taken place.