Second tourist sentenced after €5,000 hotel fraud

A second tourist has been given a three-year conditional discharge after admitting to defrauding a Sliema hotel of more than €5,000 during a week-long stay. 

Lucas Humphreys, 24, pleaded guilty on Wednesday to defrauding the Lands End Boutique alongside Jules Willis Biene Okola during their stay in late July. 

Hotel managers were alerted by banks and payment gateways that the card used to pay for the men's stay had been reported as fraudulent, and payments that had already gone through were reversed.

Between them, the pair had run up more than €5,000 in hotel spending that week.

When hotel management called them in to discuss the payments, the two gave their own account of what had happened before the hotel reported the matter to police.

Humphreys pleaded guilty to all charges on Wednesday.

The court took into account that this was his first brush with the law, that he had admitted his involvement at an early stage and that he had already made good the damage.

It also considered that Okola had appeared before a different magistrate a week earlier and been given a three-year conditional discharge.

It saw no reason to take a different approach with Humphreys.

Humphreys was found guilty of the charges and conditionally discharged for three years.

Lawyers Franco Debono and Fleur Abela represented Humphreys