Suspended sentence for man who used fake Bulgarian passport

A man who used a fake Bulgarian passport in an attempt to sidestep immigration restrictions on Albanian travellers has been given a suspended sentence by a court.

Inspector Lara Butters arraigned Ben Cura, 55, from Albania, before Magistrate Rachel Montebello yesterday morning, accusing him of forging or altering a passport, knowingly making use of it, and of possessing a forged immigration document.

Inspector Butters told the court how the accused had used the Bulgarian passport to travel from Malta to the UK, where, upon arrival, the authorities had spotted the fake passport and sent him back to Malta, where he was apprehended as he had also used the same passport to travel here.

Cura, who was arrested yesterday, didn’t consult with a lawyer but released a statement to the police admitting his guilt. He told the police that he had bought the passport in Albania for €700 as he had wanted to work in England which, he said, restricted the movement of persons with an Albanian passport. Cura pleaded guilty as charged. In her submissions on punishment, Inspector Butters asked the court to send a message to other would-be passport fakers, as the crime was serious and not a matter that Malta should take lying down. Lawyer Yanika Bugeja, legal aid to the accused, argued that accused persons were meant to be judged on what they had done, not used to send messages to third parties.

The court gave the man a oneyear prison sentence, suspended for 18 months.