An Italian man who travelled to Malta using a Maltese residence permit, was fined on Monday after managing to board a flight back despite being told that the permit was not a travel document. 

Valerio Mignozzi, a 36-year old resident of Rome, had landed in Malta on a Friday for a weekend stay, having previously worked here.  

He travelled to Malta by presenting a valid Maltese residence permit to airport authorities in Italy.

The document in his possession was a valid legal document and Italian authorities did not stop him from traveling to Malta, explained his lawyer Peter Fenech when briefly recounting the dynamics of the incident which landed his client under arrest.

Early on Monday morning, Mignozzi headed back to the airport to catch his Ryanair flight back home.

But upon presenting his residence permit at the departure gate, an airport hostess told him that he could not board the plane because that permit alone was not a valid travel document.

She asked him to step aside.

But Mignozzir ignored the hostess’s instructions and joined the line of passengers queuing to board the plane, the court was told.

He even managed to slip out and take a seat on the plane.

But that was as far as he managed to get.

Airport officials ordered him off the aircraft, handing him over to the police.

Mignozzi was arraigned on Tuesday and charged with unlawfully boarding the plane.

He pleaded guilty after consulting his lawyer. The prosecutor said he had fully cooperated with police. 

“He just could not understand why, once he travelled to Malta with that document, he could not travel out with the same document,” pointed out the defence lawyer.

“It was a mistake and he has already spent one night at the police lockup,” went on the lawyer, requesting the court to impose a minimum penalty.

Magistrate Caroline Farrugia Frendo fined Mignozzi €1300, which he would have to pay before leaving Malta.

Inspector Roxanne Tabone prosecuted.

Lawyers Peter and Elena Fenech were defence counsel.