A man who had been condemned to an effective jail term of one year for having allegedly accepted a metal cabin taken from a stolen truck, was acquitted on appeal.

Raymond Xerri, 50, had been found guilty before a magistrate's court of having knowingly accepted an Isuzu Elf cabin which allegedly belonged to a vehicle stolen from a garage in Żurrieq in February 2009.

The court of appeal, presided by Madame Justice Edwina Grima, noted that on January 24, 2010 the owner of the stolen Isuzu had allegedly spotted a van, similar to his own, outside a house in Żebbuġ and had reported the matter to the police.

The next day, the accused was questioned by the police and was later charged with accepting the stolen truck cabin.

From the very beginning, the accused protested his innocence insisting that he had actually purchased the cabin early in November 2009 for €500, the court noted. A receipt dated December 10, 2010 for alteration works to the truck following the purchase of the cabin further supported the accused's claim.

The court noted that the charge sheet had wrongly attributed the date of commission of the offence to January 24, 2010 which was when the dispossessed owner had sighted the truck and reported his suspicions to the police.

In reality, the act of acceptance could have taken place at any time between February 2009, when the theft occurred, and January 24, 2010, when the sighting of the cabin was reported.

The court, upholding the first plea of the defence, declared the accused not guilty and pronounced him a free man.

Lawyer Arthur Azzopardi was defence counsel.