A man who slipped out of Malta with a counterfeit passport soon found himself back in the country to answer for his crime, a court heard on Tuesday.

Albanian-born Ben Cura, 55, bought a counterfeit Bulgarian passport back in his homeland two years ago, keeping it for future use.

When the chance of a job in the UK came along, he travelled to Malta and then onwards to the UK. The moment he reached the UK, border authorities detected the forgery and sent him back to Malta.

Mr Cura was arrested upon his return and charged with having been in possession of the counterfeit passport and with having knowingly made use of such false document.

He admitted to the charges and said he had “made a mistake”, explaining through his interpreter that he had not committed the forgery himself.

Prosecuting Inspector Lara Butters stressed that the courts needed to send out a message that Malta was a “safe” country and people could not “just buy a passport as though at the supermarket and then expect to use it here.”

Rebutting this appeal, legal aid lawyer Yanika Bugeja argued that the court was “not here to send out a message via the accused but to mete out justice.”

Upon the accused’s own admission, duty magistrate Rachel Montebello declared him guilty and condemned him to a one-year jail term suspended for 18 months, after taking into account the man’s clean criminal record and early guilty plea.