Two German students were let off with a slap on the wrist after they stole their friends’ cash, tore up their return flight tickets and flushed them down the toilet to pay them back for a prank they had played on them.

The two 19-year-old students, Lorenz Koeppel and Michael Hans, who came to Malta on holiday, pleaded guilty to stealing the cash and were conditionally discharged for three years.

The incident took place on Wednesday night when the two accessed their friends’ room at Bay Street Hotel where they stole €220 in cash, made a mess of the room and flushed their return tickets.

They were reacting to a prank their friends had played earlier on them when they emptied their room and placed all their belongings in the hotel corridor.

The friends called the police, thinking they had been robbed.

Both students apologised for acting in this manner but Magistrate Claire Stafrace Zammit told them to be careful if they visited Malta again over the next three years because they had a punishment for this theft hanging on their heads.

Police Inspector Rosanne Debattista prosecuted while lawyer Yana Micallef Stafrace appeared for the men.