Man admits to illegal passport stamp scheme

A Macedonian man has pleaded guilty to charges of corruption and assisting persons in breaking the Immigration Act using illegitimate passport stamps.

Police Inspector Frankie Sammut accused Gzira resident Zoran Talevski, 36, of gathering the passports of various foreign nationals and giving them to a corrupt immigration official who would stamp them in such a manner as to extend their stay in Malta. The official had already been found guilty in separate proceedings, being handed a two-year sentence suspended for four and having her employment terminated.

Before magistrate Donatella Frendo Dimech, lawyer David Bonello entered a guilty plea on behalf of Talevski.

The accused had cooperated fully, said the lawyer, and his accomplice has already been handed a suspended sentence in return for helping police investigations. The accused has a clean police conduct and had filed an early admission, he said. “The question is whether he is going to be jailed and deported or just deported,” said the lawyer.

Inspector Sammut urged the court to address “this attitude that you come to Malta, do what you want and then get away with it.”

The court put the case off for judgment in April.