An Egyptian who held up a man in a block of flats last Sunday was this morning jailed for three years and the police officer who charged him was fined €200.

Husan Faiz l Lafy, 28, from Egypt pleaded guilty to holding up a man inside a block of flats in St Julian’s stealing cash, a passport and a digital camera. He was pleaded guilty to carrying a knife without permission and to stealing three laptops and two mobile phones.

As l Lafy said he was going to plead guilty, Magistrate Silvio Meli asked the police inspector why had he not included the article numbers of the laws the Egyptian was being charged under in the charge.

He also asked the inspector if he knew that the accused was going to plead guilty and the inspector said he did not because the accused had been very uncooperative.

The magistrate then deferred judgement and on return from his chambers fined the inspector €200 for “wasting the court’s time”.