Reduced sentence for man who handled stolen furniture

A man who was jailed for four years for handling stolen antique furniture and relapsing had his jail term reduced to three years after a court found that he had not relapsed.

Joseph Cini was found guilty in February 2007 of having sold stolen antiques worth around €2,239 in January, 2001 and relapsing, but not guilty of stealing the goods.

In his appeal Mr Cini argued that he could not be guilty of handling the stolen goods if he was not found guilty of actually stealing the items which were in his possession. In fact, he denied that he had even taken part in the deal. He also stressed that the first court had wrongly interpreted the law when it dealt with the punishment for relapsing. The court noted that Mr Cini could not have been found guilty of relapsing because of lack of evidence and the first court should not have taken the relapsing charge into consideration when dealing with the punishment.

The sentence that had been presented in court previously to prove that the man had a previous conviction did not have any particulars and therefore could not prove conclusively that he was a relapser. The appeals court ruled it had been sufficiently proven that he had handled the stolen property.

Still, Mr Justice David Scicluna reduced Mr Cini's sentence from four years imprisonment to three on grounds that he had not been proven to be a relapser.