A Mosta man originally fined Lm500 for stuffing protected birds without a licence had his fine reduced to Lm400 after an appeal court ruled the prosecution had failed to prove that the defendant was the taxidermist.

Roger Degiorgio, 46, had been found guilty of the possession of stuffed protected birds, a weasel and the skins of bears and wolves without a licence and the possession of chemicals and tools used in taxidermy without a licence in Mosta on and before August 18, 1997.

Degiorgio had also been found guilty of stuffing protected birds and keeping them for scientific purposes without a licence, failing to keep a register and relapsing.

But Chief Justice Vincent DeGaetano cleared him of stuffing the birds on lack of evidence.

Degiorgio was also cleared of failing to keep a register since only licensed taxidermists had to keep one.

Degiorgio was also cleared of the illegal possession of a stuffed weasel because the court expert had not listed one in the report exhibited during the compilation of evidence.