The police are on the lookout for a person who has been charging foreigners €150 to put false stamps in their passports.

The police were already investigating reports of this scheme when on Tuesday afternoon they stumbled upon three Serbian nationals who were found to have false stamps on their passports, a court was told.

They told the police they had met someone who knew a person who was providing this service in Malta. They said they paid €150 each.

The three Serbs – Dusan Cegar, 31, Marko Pavlov, 30 and Javonka Milovanovic, 29 – pleaded guilty to having false stamps on their passports.

The court heard that the immigration police had stopped a foreigner on a bus stop to check his passport but he did not have it.

He took them to his home in Mellieħa where they found that his passport was in order.

While they were there, however, they encountered the three foreigners and when they checked their passports, they found that the stamps were false.

Serbs do not require a visa to come to Malta but, according to law, must leave the island and re-enter every three months. Their passports had false Portuguese entry and exit stamps.

They told the police that they obtained the stamps through an acquaintance but could not provide a name or address.

Before Aaron Bugeja, the three Serbs pleaded guilty to the charges brought against them. They were sentenced to nine months’ imprisonment suspended for two years.

Police Inspector Darren Buhagiar prosecuted while lawyer Joseph Mizzi appeared for the accused as legal aid.