A teenage boy on a flight from Luqa (Malta) to Rome not only resulted in a rejection, but also a four-month prison sentence. When boarding at Malta Airport, the staff did not notice that the 17-year-old's passport was forged.

At the “destination airport”, however, the Italian financial police (Guardia di Finanza) carried out a routine check and was puzzled. The travel document presented by the teenager from Morocco was checked and turned out to be a forgery. After consulting with the Maltese authorities, it became clear that the teenager came from a refugee shelter in Hal Far and wanted to get to Italy using a forged passport. The Italian authorities refused entry and sent the young man back to Malta on the next Luqa flight.

There he received a "greeting" from the executive branch, as the teenager was arrested as soon as he got out of the car. Meanwhile, there was also a court hearing and the 17-year-old was sentenced to four months in prison. However, the duration of pre-trial detention is taken into account and deducted. The court punished the use of a forged identity document. A longer prison sentence would also have been possible, but the judge interpreted the young age and the fact that the teenager had confessed from the beginning, mitigating.

"Airport serial thief" sentenced to almost five years in prison

The Maltese judiciary also had to deal with another “airport criminal case”, because a thief was raiding the shops at Luqa Airport over a long period of time. According to a statement from the court, an unspecified man is said to have "served" himself in shops in the public area at irregular intervals. He let smartphones, I-Pads, tablet PCs and other valuable items go along with sophisticated “tricks”. The last "foray" was his undoing, because the police were waiting for his next "relapse" and the handcuffs clicked.

According to the court, the total damage is around 6.000 euros. In the criminal trial, the man was found guilty and received an unconditional prison sentence of four years and eleven months. The judge saw it as proven, among other things, based on the camera recordings that he had committed the series of thefts. Furthermore, the police were able to find some items during a search of the apartment, including jewelry stolen at the airport. The convicted person is said to have remained silent in the process about how he succeeded in attracting display cases, some of which were alarmed, and even without attracting immediate attention.