find out his fate.

Magistrate Arthur Hodgson said he wanted to give serious consideration to the case against David Morley, who was charged with the theft of 25 lilies on April 12, before delivering his verdict.

Morley, 39, of Church Crescent, Shelly Bay, had pleaded not guilty to theft.

During final submissions in the trial, Richard Hector, defending, said the case was similar to someone going into a supermarket, picking up a tin and immediately being called a thief -- before reaching the till. His client had been arrested after farmer Joseph Pacheco caught him cutting lilies in a field, off Middle Road, Devonshire. Morley protested that he fully intended to pay for the flowers by going to the nearby house or by visiting a flower stall that sometimes stood at the end of the road.

But Mr. Hector said Mr. Pacheco wanted to see someone punished after many incidents of stealing and trespassing on his land.

Leighton Rochester, prosecuting, said the theft had occurred the moment Morley cut the flowers.

He said he drove straight to the field, in a secluded spot in Devonshire, without looking for the farmer and said he was going to pay at a stall that wasn't there. "He had no authorisation to go in to the field,'' said Mr.

Rochester. Mr. Hodgson will deliver his judgement on June 29.