An aircraft maintenance company official was conditionally discharged by a magistrate's court today after he was convicted of having unlawfully dismantled an aircraft's generators to force payment of funds owed to his company. 

Alexander Ferdinand Vit, a German, allegedly took the generators worth €7272.58 from a Libyan Air Ambulance belonging to the Health Ministry in Tripoli.

Magistrate Aaron Bugeja heard how the accused's company, Maintenance Centre Malta Ltd was owed money by the plane's owners.

But before instituting legal action over the alleged debt, the accused decided to take the law into his own hands by instructing his employees to dismantle the aircraft's generators in a move intended to force the plane owners to come to a settlement. The plane was grounded as a result.

The court declared the accused guilty, but owing to the nature of the offence and the character of the offender, conditionally discharged him for a period of six months.

The accused was acquitted of having caused €250 in damages to the aircraft on the basis of insufficient evidence