A Newtownbutler man who was convicted of four counts of handling stolen goods has been handed a four month suspended prison sentence when his case came up for sentencing at Fermanagh Magistrates Court.

Archie Ivan Bryans (41) from Railway Crescent in Newtownbutler had contested the charges but was found guilty by the court on an earlier occasion.

The court heard that on 18th November 2005 a search was carried out of a premises at Gortgommon, Newtownbutler in which a number of power tools were found. Bryans was subsequently charged with four counts of handling stolen goods. However, he denied all knowledge of the goods being stolen property.

A pre-sentence report was available to the court and the defendant was represented by solicitor Barry Lynham.

The charges before the court were that, between 18th October and 18th November 2005, Bryans handled stolen goods namely a Makita Chop Saw, two Bosch drills and an ECU angle grinder, an NUM alarm programmer and a Metabo drill.

Sentencing, Resident Magistrate Austin Kennedy told the defendant: 'You contested this matter and were found guilty by this court. Handling stolen goods is a very serious matter where property is taken from other innocent individuals."

Mr Kennedy said the court had a duty to protect the public and imposed four months' imprisonment for each of the four counts before the court (all concurrent), suspended for two years.