A Nigerian man from Liverpool was jailed for nine months yesterday for trying to help four immigrants in detention travel to Sicily illegally and with blatantly false passports.

The 45-year-old graphic designer, Michael Chileno Okechukwu Ama Obi, admitted to the police that he was trying to help the men leave the island but had only asked them for money to pay for their tickets. He was facing up to five years in jail or a fine of €23,000.

The men tried to leave the island with passports issued by "the State of Sabotage and the Government of World Citizens". So silly was their attempt that the police did not even charge them with using the false documents but only with trying to leave the island without documentation.

In yesterday's compilation of evidence, Mr Obi decided to admit to the charge of assisting the men to leave the island.

Three of the men, Mustafa Sarim, 20, from Burkina Faso, and Nigerians John Bull Ibrahim, 23, and Christian Obice, 21, admitted to trying to leave the island without documentation on their arraignment and were jailed for a month each. The fourth man, Promise Ndubueze, 30, of Nigeria, was jailed for a month for escaping from the Safi detention centre.

Police Inspector Mario Haber testified yesterday that three of the men said that they had paid the accused a deposit and then had to pay a further amount once they arrived in Sicily.

They told the inspector that collectively they had paid him €650, with a further figure of over €1,000 having to be paid once they arrived in their destination.

The accused had told police that he only took the money from them to pay for their tickets.

Inspector Haber informed the court that when the police carried out a search at his home they did not find any other false documents and on his arrest all he had was €45 in cash in his pocket.

Magistrate Doreen Clarke took into consideration the early guilty plea and jailed him for nine months.

Defence lawyers Andy Ellul and Vince Micallef appeared for Mr Ama Obi.