A firearms dealer from Rabat has been cleared of conspiracy to commit a crime and of exceeding the amount of cartridges he could legally store.

Michael Azzopardi, 58, had also been accused of failing to keep an up to date inventory and register of the arms and munitions in his care and with storing over 12,000 rounds on his property.

Magistrate Josette Demicoli had heard police inspector Jonathan Ferris explain how, in June 2013, he had traced a lot number of 50,000 Bornaghi shotgun cartridges, earmarked for illegal export, to the accused. The inspector had called at the man's shop so as to inspect the arms register.

This document had to show the movement of every firearm and piece of ammunition, the licence number of the purchaser, as well as imports and exports. Instead, Inspector Ferris told the court, he had been shown a diary “with a lot of scribbles”.

Under cross-examination, the officer confirmed that further investigations had later revealed the 50,000 cartridges to have been legitimately imported.

The court noted that the law had been amended in 2015 to allow holders of a specific licence to store up to 250,000 rounds. This meant that the situation, which may have been illegal before the change in the law, was rectified when the legal limit was raised from 12,000 to 250,000 rounds of ammunition.

The court declared that when legislative amendments take place during the proceedings, the general rule was that the law most favourable to the accused had to apply.

The court held that since the 50,000 cartridges had been legitimately imported, the man had to be cleared of this charge.

The man was fined €1,164 for the administrative shortcomings.