A 29-year-old man from Zabbar today was conditionally discharged for 12 months for stealing what he thought were unwanted aluminium frames from a Marsaxlokk property.

The court heard how Danrof Vella spotted the “rusty frames” in the drive-in of a Marsaxlokk home on 3 March 2014 and thought they were going to be thrown away. The man knocked on the door and went round the house trying to see if anyone was home but when no one answered he decided that, since they had been left outside and were in such a bad state, they were unwanted. He took the frames, which had no glass affixed, and later sold them as scrap for 90 cents per kilo, for a total profit of €300.

Magistrate Doreen Clarke heard how the “frames” were actually yacht windows belonging to the owner of the property. The yacht owner had removed them from the boat in order to restore them and left them in his driveway because there was no space in his garage. The man said he returned home later on that day to find that the frames had gone missing. A neighbour told him that a man had taken them away in a van and that he had jotted down the licence plate numbers. 

The court found Mr Vella guilty of stealing the items as they were inside the property and not in the road. The accused, the court said, should not have assumed that the “frames” were going to be thrown away.