A passenger heading to an outbound flight to Tunisia on Monday got more than he bargained for when he lied to customs officials about the amount of cash he was carrying.

Refugee Hisham Khalleefah Ali Laweer was arraigned on Tuesday after he was arrested at Malta International Airport at around 4.30am on Monday over an alleged breach of cash control regulations and a false declaration made to customs officers.

A female officer explained in court how officials had been carrying out random currency checks at the departure lounge for non-Schengen passengers, when a sniffer dog signalled a reaction in respect of the suspect.

When conducted to a private office, the man allegedly told officers that he had €9,000 in cash, before producing the sum of €9,715.

However, a rub-down search on the suspect soon yielded a further €2,000 in cash, the court was told.

Although no money was found in the passenger’s luggage, a strip search yielded another €15,000, bringing the total amount of cash to €26,715, well above the maximum statutory limit of €10,000.

In light of the man’s own admission, the court, presided over by magistrate Aaron Bugeja, declared the accused guilty, ordered the confiscation of the excess of €16,715 and imposed the statutory 25% fine over the total amount which worked out to €6,679.

With respect to the accusation of making a false declaration, the court condemned the accused to a 13-month jail term suspended for two years, bringing the case to the notice of the minister concerned for the purpose of considering whether the accused’s refugee protection ought to be revoked once the man had, upon his own admission, committed a particularly serious crime and had failed to respect the laws of Malta.

Inspector Rennie Stivala prosecuted. Lawyer Simon Micallef Stafrace was legal aid counsel.

Sign up to our free newsletters

Get the best updates straight to your inbox:
Please select at least one mailing list.

You can unsubscribe at any time by clicking the link in the footer of our emails. We use Mailchimp as our marketing platform. By subscribing, you acknowledge that your information will be transferred to Mailchimp for processing.