Chilean student jailed, fined in Malta for breaking into car to sleep inside

VALLETTA – A Chilean student who smashed a rental car’s windows to sleep inside it after a night of drinking in Malta has been handed a suspended sentence and ordered to pay nearly €4,400 in damages, according to local media.

Nicolas Jesus Rivera Cordero, 25, was presented before magistrate Charmaine Galea on Wednesday for after he was accused of committing voluntary damage to property, trespassing and being drunk and incapable of taking care of himself in a public area.

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Cordero, who is on a study trip to Malta, was making his way back to his residence at San Ġwann in a drunken state on Monday night. Going through Żebbuġ Road, St Julian’s and feeling the urge to sleep, the young man decided to smash the windscreen and one of the rear windows of a parked Nissan belonging to Meli Car Rentals, intending to settle down and sleep inside.

He ended up being arrested and prosecuted for voluntarily damaging the car.

The student pleaded guilty to the charges after the court warned him that he faced a maximum of 4 years in prison for the offense, the Malta Today reported.

He was eventually sentenced to 2 years in prison, suspended for 4 years and condemned to pay €4397 to Meli Car Rentals Ltd before leaving Malta. Cordero pledged to pay the full amount before his scheduled return flight on November 5.

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