A man was conditionally discharged for a year today for stealing aluminium window frames from the drive-in of a Marsaxlokk house because he assumed they were about to be thrown away.

It emerged that the frames were of the yacht, that belonged to the owner of the house. He had removed them from the yacht to restore them and left them in his drive-in because they were too bulky to place in the garage.

Magistrate Doreen Clarke heard how, on March 3, 2014, Danrof Vella, from Zabbar, was driving around Marsaxlokk in his van at around 7.30am.

He spotted the aluminium frames in the drive-in leading to the garage of a house and thought he could make some money selling them. He said that he knocked at the door of the house, but no one replied, and even looked around the premises hoping to find someone to ask about the frames. He then decided that, since they were outside and in a bad state, they must be destined to be thrown out. He loaded the frames into his van and sold them for €300: 90c a kilo. The frames had no glass affixed to them.

The owner of the house explained that he had placed the window frames in his drive-in because they were bulky. When he returned home they were gone and, the following day, a neighbour told him a man in a van had taken them. The neighbour had taken note of the van's registration number.

The magistrate found Mr Vella guilty after noting that the frames were in the drive-in and not in the road and therefore he should not have assumed they were to be thrown away.