A hunter was today found not guilty of falsifying a permit covering his collection of stuffed birds, after a court ruled that the prosecution had failed to prove its case.

Emmanuel Fenech, 45, from Mosta, was arraigned on April 5, 2008 following a police raid in his home when he was found in possession of 159 stuffed birds.

Senior Mepa environmental officer Stanley Gatt had told the court that when the accused was asked if his collection was covered by a permit, he had produced a copy of a document stamped with the ‘received date’ of February 16, 1993.

However, it later transpired that this was a copy he had made before submitting the application, and so questions were raised how it could have been stamped before reaching the authorities.

The Mepa official had also flagged at least 10 anomalies in the 'permit', and said that no records of the accused’s collection had been found at the Environment Department. Hence the official concluded that Mr Fenech’s documentation was false.

On his part the accused had told the police that he had regularised his position following an amnesty given in 1996.

In its decision the court said that the accused was consistent in his statements throughout the case. It noted that no sufficient evidence had been produced which indicated that he had forged the stamp.

On the other hand Mr Fenech had testified that he had gone to the Environment Department to get his documents stamped, during the 1996 amnesty. He had even told the police that the permit had been stamped by a certain Charmaine.

The court presided by Magistrate Consuelo Scerri Herrera noted that the prosecution had based its case entirely on the claims by the Mepa officer, who and at times was not entirely convincing. It was also remarked how the prosecution had not confronted the accused with this Charmaine, to verify who was saying the truth, or carried independent tests to verify of the document was false.

In view of this the court acquitted Mr Fenech of all charges.