A court this morning chided a Libyan father who obtained a residence permit to join his family in Malta after falsely declaring he was a student at the Chamber College.

Magistrate Donatella Frendo Dimech sentenced Hamouda Kalid Ali Otman, 37, to a 14-month jail term suspended for 30 months, after admitting to filing a false declaration. 

"The court will not tolerate this kind of behavior. Using such methods to evade border controls is not acceptable especially in the current climate," she said.

Earlier, defence lawyer Arthur Azzopardi told the court that his client had in fact planned to come to study English in Malta but his plan failed as his wife had not been granted a visa permit at the time.

However, she later settled in Malta together with his three children who all attend school on the island.

In her remarks, the Magistrate noted that schools needed to be more vigilant so as not to be used to "circumvent" existing laws, due to the fact that the man had been granted a student card. 

Prosecuting, police inspector Frankie Sammut said that the man had only spent 16 days in Malta in the previous 12 months.

The court ordered the Libyan to be expelled from Malta with immediate effect.