Nigerian jailed for fake residence permit

A court has handed a Nigerian man a custodial sentence after he attempted to leave Malta with a false French residency permit.

Ben Chidi Nwaeke, 35, was jailed for seven months after pleading guilty to the possession and use of forged documents.

He was arrested on Thursday at a check-in desk at the Malta International Airport whilst trying to board a flight to Madrid with a false French residency permit, ostensibly issued in his name. 

Magistrate Doreen Clarke was told by police inspector Darren Buhagiar that Nwaeke had been uncooperative with the police and had flatly refused to reveal the name of the person who had supplied him with the fake document and whether he had purchased it locally or had received it from abroad, but his lawyer, Joe Mifsud, argued that the constitutional right to remain silent could not be used against the person using it. 

Mifsud requested a suspended sentence, however the court elected to uphold the prosecution’s request for an effective jail term, sentencing Nwaeke to seven months imprisonment.