A man charged with stealing a laptop worth around €500 last year was this morning found not guilty of committing the crime.
Floyd Attard, 25, of Senglea was charged with stealing the laptop in January last year from Style Computers of Fgura.
He was also found not guilty of handling stolen property and relapsing.
The court heard that Mr Attard had gone to the shop and requested a quotation for a camera and a computer.
The salesgirl went to the back of the shop to get the quotation and when she returned to the front of the shop, she found that the laptop had gone missing. She looked outside and saw the accused getting into a car in which there was another person. She took the car’s registration number.
The accused returned to the shop and told the salesgirl that his cousin, who was with him, had stolen the laptop. He said that he would return it.
Later on that day he contacted the salesgirl and the shop owner and told them he was still trying to get the laptop.
However, when he did not return it the following day, the owner lodged a report with the police.
The accused was arrested and told the police he would do his utmost to get the laptop. He was given police bail, got the laptop and returned it to the police. However, he did not give them any information as to who the person who had stolen the laptop was.
The court said that it did not make sense that someone who stole something from a shop would return out of his own free will to inform the people responsible of the crime, remain in contact with them, get hold of the stolen object and return it.
It was improbable that the laptop had been in the possession of the accused except for a short period while he got hold of it from third parties.
It was true that the best thing the accused could have done to exonerate himself would have been to name the other person. But, in criminal proceedings, an accused was presumed innocent until proven guilty and it was the police who had to prove their case against him.
Lawyers Emmanuel Mallia and Arthur Azzopardi appeared for the accused.