A Panamanian was yesterday jailed for four years and six months and fined €10,000 after he was found guilty of stealing some €50,000 and laundering that amount to his home country.

Eduardo Navas Rios, 30, from Qawra, was found guilty by six votes to three of money laundering, seven votes to two of stealing the money and unanimously not guilty of illegal possession of ammunition.

Jurors returned after some eight hours of deliberation following a five-day legally technical trial.

At the start of the trial, prosecuting lawyer Lara Lanfranco said that an estimated €349,500 had been transferred from Malta to Panama, sparking an investigation in 2006.

She said a woman, Simone Sciberras, who later turned out to be Mr Rios’s girlfriend, also became involved after she had €65,240 deposited into her bank account without any credible story as to how she came across such a large sum.

Of the total amount of money laundered, the accused is responsible for some €50,000, the prosecution said.

In submissions on punishment, Dr Lanfranco said she was not after a pound of flesh and said that there was no minimum punishment by law.

Lawyer Joe Mifsud agreed with the prosecutor, adding that his client had a clean police record.

Mr Justice Lawrence Quintano said that by law he had to find sentence him according to the law applicable at the time, which stated that the maximum he could be given was a €2.3 million fine and 14 years imprisonment.