A 24-year-old British man was yesterday conditionally discharged for one year after he admitted to threatening police officers at Ghadira Bay, Mellieha, on Tuesday night.

The accused’s lawyer, Jason Azzopardi told the court that his client, Christian Philip Chadwick, had filed a guilty plea “against his will” simply because he had to leave Malta on Monday and could not afford to stay here until his case was over.

Dr Azzopardi explained that the incident took place when Mr Chadwick sat on a floating lido at Ghadira Bay and accidentally broke a sign when he rested against it.

He said his client went to the owner of this sign to pay for the damage caused, which amounted to about Lm17. Then, later on, a group of police officers on the beach approached Mr Chadwick and started pushing him around, said Dr Azzopardi.

When Mr Chadwick reacted to this treatment he was accused of assaulting the officers.

Police Inspector Josric Mifsud, argued that there were two sides to this story as he had been informed that Mr Chadwick had shouldered a police officer who told him not to move from where he was standing.

After hearing this Magistrate Antonio Mizzi handed down a conditional discharge and warned Mr Chadwick not to commit any other crime within the year if he came back to Malta, the magistrate said.