A Tunisian man was jailed for 18 months after pleading guilty to defrauding a number of Chinese students who were in Malta to learn English, when he lured them into paying him for visas for Italy which never materialised.

The court, presided over by magistrate Lawrence Quintano, heard how Amor Maatoug, 33, convinced a number of Chinese nationals who were in Malta to learn English to pay him so that he could get them a visa with which they would be allowed to travel to Italy.

The court heard how in March 2004, the Chinese students between them forked out more than Lm3,000 for the visas that were never supplied.

Handing down his judgement, magistrate Quintano noted that the Tunisian had a criminal record and that he only filed a guilty plea very late in the proceedings, after many of the prosecution’s witnesses had already testified. Moreover, the court also considered that Maatoug never paid back the Chinese students the money he had accepted.

Magistrate Quintano therefore jailed him for 18 months and ordered that the time he spent in preventive custody in connection with this case be deducted from the jail term.

Police Inspector Joseph Cordina prosecuted.