A tourist who left 41 sachets of cocaine and ecstasy pills in his hotel room and then checked out has been jailed after admitting the drugs were his.
The drugs were found by a cleaner of the St Paul’s Bay hotel inside an oven in the room. Three guests had just checked out.
There were 41 sachets of cocaine, a brownish substance and four ecstasy pills.
Later that day at around 8:30pm, one of the three former guests staying in that room called the hotel to say that he had forgotten his passport.
The police were alerted and when the guest, identified as 24-year-old self-employed British national Kane Dylan Bennington, returned to the hotel he was immediately arrested.
Earlier this week he was arraigned and charged with possessing cocaine and ecstasy under circumstances denoting that the drugs were not exclusively for his personal use.
After consulting his legal aid lawyer, the youth registered an admission.
The court, presided over by magistrate Noel Bartolo, warned him about the legal consequences of that guilty plea, including imprisonment, and gave him time to reconsider.
“I’m guilty,” repeated the defendant, raising his right hand by way of confirming his admission.
After hearing submissions the court declared the accused guilty and condemned him to a one-and-a-half year effective jail term – a sentence that both the defence and prosecution had informed the court they agreed with.
The court also issued a treatment order for an equal term after being informed by the defence lawyer that the youth had a drug problem.
Inspectors Francesco Mizzi and John Leigh Howard prosecuted.
Lawyer Ilona Schembri was legal aid lawyer.
Source: https://timesofmalta.com/article/tourist-leaves-cocaine-ecstasy-hotel-room-checking-out-gets-jailed.1099428
