A ship captain travelling back to his family in Syria with six-month’s worth of wages in his luggage landed in court on Friday facing charges for breaching cash control regulations. 

Mohammad Bahlawan, 31, ran into trouble at the Malta International Airport on Wednesday morning while trying to travel to Lebanon. 

A customs canine dog sniffed the cash inside the luggage of two Syrian nationals who were stopped and searched.

One passenger was found carrying €10,419 in undeclared cash, slightly over the €10,000 limit and was offered an out-of-court settlement. 

The other passenger, Bahlawan, had €38,331 in different currencies, concealed inside his carry-on bag. 

He was arrested and escorted to court on Friday, charged with breaching cash control regulations.

The man registered an admission which he confirmed after consulting his lawyer a second time. 

“I need to go home as soon as possible,” he stated, as the court explained that he had every opportunity to reconsider his guilty plea. 

A customs officer provided a breakdown of the total amount of cash found in the accused’s possession.

There were US$28,841, 46,000 Syrian pounds, 450 Turkish Lira and 15,000 Lebanese pounds which added up to the equivalent of €38,331. 

€10,000 were handed back to him but the excess was confiscated.

When making submissions on punishment the prosecution pointed out that the accused had fully cooperated.

This was his first time in Malta, travelling out of an EU country through the airport and he was not aware of the regulations in place, said prosecuting Inspector Christopher Ellul.

Defence lawyer Abigail Bugeja explained that the cash represented six months of “hard-earned wages” which could not be remitted to banks in the accused’s homeland simply because no such facilities existed. 

There were his employment contract and payslips to account for that.

This had been “a minor oversight” for which the accused would bear the brunt, went on the lawyer, pleading with the court for “clemency, simply on humanitarian grounds”.

The man’s family was still living in the war-torn country.

Moreover, the law had recently been changed following two particular judgments by the Constitutional Court whereby the confiscation of excess cash was no longer mandatory.

The court could now impose a 55% fine on the excess without the confiscation, the lawyer argued, citing the judgments referred to.

Prosecuting Inspector Lianne Bonello intervened, saying that the excess cash was to be confiscated provisionally for a term of 30 days until police determined the source of funds. 

After hearing submissions the court, presided over by magistrate Nadine Lia, handed down a €15,633 fine, declaring that the excess was to be confiscated in terms of law. 

Once the necessary verifications were finalised, the man’s lawyer could apply to the court for release of those monies.