A landscape artist who received a number of birds which had been stolen from a farmhouse in Bidnija was handed a suspended prison sentence today.

Stephen Naudi was accused of the theft as well as of having received the birds which were stolen in June 2014 from a room in  a field in Harruba street, limits of Bidnija.

The dispossessed owner, Jean Pierre Mifsud, a breeder and bird lover who delighted in exhibiting his species at bird shows, reported that 230 birds had been stolen. 

Following the theft, the owner began to roam local pet shops and finally found 10 of his Gouldiens in a store in San Gwann. The matter was reported to the police, the court was told. 

The owner of the pet shop testified that the accused had allegedly approached him and offered to sell him the birds for €180. This information led the police to the accused's home where another 82 birds worth some €2,280 were discovered. 

The accused testified that he often carried out landscaping works in villas in the Bidnija area. On the night of the alleged theft he said that he was fishing at Popeye Village until the early hours of the morning. 

He claimed to have bought the birds discovered at his home from a friend and a man of Syrian origin who came up to him while he was at his usual haunt in the square opposite the Hamrun police station. 

The court said that the testimony of the accused did not tally with that of the other witnesses. Moreover, in the different versions given by the accused there were evident contradictions. 

"All these contradictions undermine the credibility of the accused," the court declared. 

Noting that the birds found at the pet shop and the accused's home had been returned albeit in a very bad state, the court condemned the accused to six months imprisonment suspended for three years. 

The accused was declared not guilty of the theft but guilty of having received stolen property. 

Inspector Nicholas Vella prosecuted.