Irishman f ined for balcony jump in Magaluf

AN IRISH holidaymaker has become the sixth person to be punished for balcony-jumping in the Magaluf area this summer.

Police visited the tourist in hospital as he was recovering and told him he must pay a €600 fine before flying home for ‘balconing’ – the Spanish term for people jumping between balconies or leaping from hotel terraces into the pool below.

They confirmed in a statement: ‘The last case of balconing was on Monday at 5.30am when an Irish 21-year-old fell from a height of four metres. He appears to have broken his kneecap and was transferred to Son Espases Hospital.

‘The cases that ended up with fines last month included one in Santa Ponsa, thanks to hotel CCTV footage, and another in Magaluf last Friday. In total the number of sanctions this year for balconing in the municipality of Calvia now total six: one in June, three in July and two in August.’

An 18-year-old Irishwoman was fined after losing her balance and plunging into the courtyard of a hotel in Magaluf last month.

Police said she ignored requests to stop before she fell.

Fines for balconing in Calvia range from €600 to €1,500. Early payers get a 50% discount.

It also emerged yesterday that a British holidaymaker who plunged from a sixth-floor balcony last Friday in Maguluf has discharged himself from hospital and left his hotel before he could be given his fine.

Local authorities said he had left Son Espases Hospital in the island capital Palma – without waiting for doctors to give him the all-clear – before they could hand him his bill.

Hospital sources confirmed he left on Sunday – just two days after he cheated death and was taken from HRH Magaluf Hotel on a stretcher and admitted to intensive care with serious injuries. It was not clear yesterday what his condition was when he left his hospital bed.

Commenting on this incident, a source at Calvia Town Hall – which covers Magaluf as well as Santa Ponsa, areas that are popular with Irish holidaymakers – said: ‘He is the only one of six people the police have decided to fine so far this year in the municipality who hasn’t been given his penalty charge notice.

‘He checked himself out of hospital before police could present him with his demand to pay and we think he’s left the island after leaving his hotel. We are now making attempts to find an address for him in the UK and inform him that way.’