Joseph Cini, 45, currently a prison inmate, has been jailed for a further three years after being convicted of breaking into a house in San Gwann and stealing some Lm2,000 in jewellery and Lm900 in cash. The robbery took place in April 1991.

Mr Cini gained access from an adjoining building site after scaling a boundary wall, but was caught when his fingerprints were found on an aluminium door.

Court proceedings against Mr Cini were first instituted in 2005 but had been put off when he could not be located. It was reappointed in November 2008 but the Magistrate Consuelo Scerri Herrera noted that progress had been slow because either the accused or the defence counsel did not appear for some of the sittings.

In a separate case, Mr Cini was acquitted of charges of having stolen jewellery in March 1991 from an apartment in Tower Road, Sliema.

Magistrate Scerri Herrera said she regretted that the police had been informed by the accused himself that he had been in prison at the time of the alleged theft, but the police chose to ignore this information and had still arraigned him.

Had the prosecution done its work properly this case would not have ended up before the court, the magistrate said.