”A poacher has been caught trapping birds illegally just 24 hours after he was convicted for the same offence,” the Committee Against Bird Slaughter (CABS) said today.

The NGO stated that on Friday morning one of its teams filmed and reported a man who was trapping finches on an unregistered trapping site and without any permit in Migra I-Ferha, at the west coast of Malta.

”The police responded very quickly, arrested the trapper and confiscated 20 live finches as well as a large set of clap nets,” said CABS.

“Our video evidence clearly shows that it was the same person who on Thursday – barely 24 hours before being caught again – was convicted for illegal trapping during the closed season in spring 2019,” CABS Press Officer Axel Hirschfeld said, he added that this makes him “the Usain Bolt of repeat offenders.”

The police had also confirmed to CABS that the man is a relapser who had stood trial on the previous day.

CABS said that the case from 2019 was also based on the report of a CABS team who filmed the man red-handed on 19 March 2019, also in Migra I-Ferha.

On Thursday this case in court where Magistrate Elaine Mercieca fined him €1,500 and also ordered the revocation of his trapping licence, the NGO said.

“Apparently the penalty did not deter this man to continue with his selfish and illegal hobby. However, when he was arrested yesterday we could see that he was visibly shaken as he did not expect to be nabbed again so soon,” Hirschfeld stated.

CABS photo shows the trapper (middle) and officers from the EPU dismantling the nets on his illegal site yesterday morning

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