A Gozitan was yesterday jailed for two-and-a-half years for stealing 13 collectable guns worth €95,000 last year from the Customs warehouse in Marsa.

Christopher Shepherd, 39, who was jailed last month for 20 months after burgling a house twice, yesterday admitted to breaking into the General Examination Shed and taking the firearms on the night of February 21.

Only five have since been recovered and the hunt is on for the rest, which have been sold.

A second man, Mark Rizzo, 44, was also charged with the theft but pleaded not guilty and was granted bail against a personal guarantee of €10,000.

Mr Shepherd broke into the warehouse where the guns were kept to be cleared by Customs and passed on to the owner, a returning migrant.

The accused had even taken the hard disk of the CCTV cameras with him to evade capture.

The guns belong to another Gozitan, Raymond Cauchi, who had returned from the US two years before and had declared the guns as collectibles.

The guns are rare and each formed part of a limited edition. Mr Cauchi described the workmanship as quite spectacular, with 24-carat gold engravings which had to be seen to be fully appreciated.

Police Inspector Keith Arnaud prosecuted.

Lawyer Emmanuel Mallia appeared for Mr Rizzo while lawyer Mark Busuttil appeared for Mr Cauchi.

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