A couple and their months-old baby landed in court on Sunday, hours after being arrested just when about to board the catamaran for Sicily. 

The father, a 30-year-old Sudanese national, together with the 20-year-old Eritrean mother, were arrested at around 6.30am by immigration officers after presenting what appeared to be false Norwegian passports. 

The couple and child were escorted to court, admitting to possession of the documents, the woman insisting that she had not been aware that the passports were false.

The father, on his part, claimed that he only realised the documents were false after presenting them at passport control before boarding. 

The couple filed an early guilty plea.

Upon that admission the court, presided over by magistrate Nadine Lia, condemned the father to a six-month effective jail term, and the mother an equal term suspended for two years, warning the woman of her great responsibility towards her child. 

Committing another offence within these two years, would risk her facing a six-month jail term, the court warned. 

Inspector Hubert Gerada prosecuted.