A Gozitan man who has been repeatedly found guilty of illegal trapping is still a member of the hunter’s federation (FKNK) and will remain so despite his latest conviction last week, Times of Malta has learnt.

Paul Grech from Santa Lucija has as many as five convictions to his name, dating back to 2001, but the Federation of Hunters and Trappers said that it had no intention of taking disciplinary action against this particular trapper seeing as he has already been punished by the courts.

Such matters are at the discretion of the FKNK’s disciplinary board

In one of the incidents, which happened in 2009, the federation’s current CEO, Lino Farrugia, was convicted of aiding and abetting Mr Grech’s illegal activity.

Since then there were another three convictions, the latest one coming last week when Mr Grech was found guilty of using illegal trapping devices in 2012.

His equipment was confiscated and he was fined €1,200 by a Gozo court.

However, despite declaring a zero-tolerance stand against illegal activities before the current autumn trapping season, FKNK yesterday confirmed it had no intention of kicking out Mr Grech or suspending his membership.

“As we have publicly stated on various occasions, such matters are at the discretion of the FKNK’s disciplinary board. Such a board is constituted ad hoc when the council believes there is a serious breach of hunting regulations,” Mr Farrugia told Times of Malta.

He was asked whether his organisation would be taking any disciplinary action against Mr Grech for his history of illegal trapping.

Mr Farrugia underlined that his federation makes a clear distinction between the killing of a bird of prey and the use of a bird caller.

“The case you mention has been tried and decided by the court and such decision already takes into account the penalty adjudicated and consequently makes any further action irrelevant.”

Mr Grech was convicted of illegal trapping in 2001, 2006, 2009, 2011 and last week.

The cases concern various illegal activities including trapping at night, using artificial light, possession of protected species, possession of VHF without licence, and making use of nets with a mesh size smaller than the permitted limit.

In 2009, Mr Farrugia, then the federation’s general secretary, was fined €349.40 after the Court of Criminal Appeal found him guilty of assisting Mr Grech to violate a police order to stop trapping birds.

The Appeals Court said that although it believed Mr Farrugia had not gone to the site to trap birds, he had gone there as an official of the hunters’ federation to investigate a complaint by Mr Grech over the actions of the police.

The court said Mr Farrugia’s presence for almost two hours at a place where nets had been put up, manifestly against the law, without him doing anything to draw attention to this violation, as well as his attitude towards the police, particularly when he told Mr Grech not to dismantle the nets as ordered by the police, rendered him guilty of having assisted or encouraged Mr Grech to violate regulations.