A man who was caught with a Kinder chocolate egg stuffed with heroin during a roadblock which took place in April 2006 was sentenced to a one-year jail term after he was found guilty of the aggravated possession of the drug.

Soldiers manning a roadblock in Żabbar had spotted Cospicua resident Vincent Spalding throwing objects out of the passenger window of the car in which he was travelling.

The egg was one of the items recovered by the soldiers, who found that it had been stuffed with 14 sachets of a substance suspected to be heroin. An amount of cannabis was also found on his person. Court experts ultimately testified that 0.32g of cannabis and 0.77g of heroin had been found.

Mr Spalding, who is now 42, had told police that he had divided the heroin into sachets to keep track of his consumption, but this explanation failed to convince Magistrate Natasha Galea Sciberras. The magistrate noted that the possession of 14 sachets of heroin was in itself significant, more so when it was discovered in transit, and not at home.

The magistrate also said that the degree of precision with which the drugs had been divided into individual sachets was crucial to finding him guilty of aggravated possession. No weighing scales were found in Mr Spalding’s home, but the court only ruled that this evidenced his experience in dividing heroin doses for sale.

Mr Spalding’s explanation that he would spend over half his weekly income to fund a drug habit going back nine years was also deemed odd by the magistrate, particularly since the defendant claimed that he lived off social benefits and had no other source of income.

The magistrate thus found Mr Spalding guilty of the aggravated possession of heroin and of the simple possession of cannabis.

In awarding punishment, she took into account that criminal proceedings began in 2006, and that they only took so long for reasons mostly attributable to Mr Spalding.

Mr Spalding was thus jailed for 1 year, fined €700 for the possession of heroin and €50 for the possession of cannabis, and held liable for €523 in court expenses.

Inspector Nezren Grixti prosecuted.