A taxi driver was given a nine-month prison sentence and a €950 fine after facing drug trafficking charges following the discovery of three packets of cannabis resin inside the fuel cap of his vehicle on New Year's Eve seven years ago.

Antonio Frendo, 68, from Birkirkara, was found guilty of cannabis possession under circumstances which indicated that the drug was not for his own personal use. The drug was also found within 100 metres of a place popular with young people.

The drug cache was discovered when, in the night between December 31 and January 1, 2009, the police received a tip-off concerning a VW Passat taxi parked outside a Paceville bar. A first search yielded no results but a second, more intensive, search led the police to three small foil packets hidden inside the cap of the fuel tank.

These packets yielded 13.36 grammes of cannabis resin which, Mr Frendo under police interrogation, admitted belonged to him but was intended for his own personal use.

The court, presided over by magistrate Natasha Galea Sciberras, pointed out that since a joint normally contained 0.2g of cannabis, this cache would produce some 66 joints.

The magistrate observed that Mr Frendo's testimony had presented certain contradictory statements. The accused had declared that he occasionally smoked a joint when in female company, next remarking that his fellow cab-drivers sometimes offered him a joint.

Mr Frendo had also declared that he had hid the drug inside the fuel cap so as to ensure that it would not be stolen. However, he later admitted that he had devised the hiding place so as to keep the drug out of his wife's prying eyes.

"This was a good hiding place where one did not normally expect to find drugs yet which was easily accessible to the driver," the court remarked.

When passing judgment, the court observed that Mr Frendo had, on previous occasions, been found guilty of several traffic contraventions, corruption of minors, perjury and VAT offences.