A young Bosnian, angry at having been fired, stole a laptop from his former employer and tried to leave the island with it, only to be caught at the airport last Tuesday.

Elvir Cimirotic, 23, had gone along to the office where he used to work the previous day to print out his boarding pass, after having been laid off from a job he had held for four months.

When he saw the laptop on a desk he decided to take it out of spite, because he believed he had been fired for no reason at all, Police Inspector Anna Marie Micallef told a court yesterday.

Police got to the airport in the nick of time. He was asked, via public announcement, to go to the immigration police, which he did promptly and immediately handed over the laptop and admitted to the crime, the inspector said.

Legal aid lawyer Adrian Camilleri asked Magistrate Silvio Meli to take into consideration the fact that his client was a first-time offender and had returned the laptop.

In the circumstances, Magistrate Meli jailed him for a year suspended for another year and explained to him the implications of a suspended jail term.