Robert Barcock, 48, of Rushden in Northamptonshire, had claimed the balls - worth £150,000 - were being stored at his warehouse for someone else.

Barcock, who runs M and L Packagers in Rushden, was sentenced after police found 9,757 boxes, each containing 18 balls, at his premises in October 2001.

The balls, which belonged to Spalding Sports UK of Cambridgeshire, were worth £150,000.

Sentence quashed

Judge Bray caused controversy when he imprisoned a Lancashire man for retrieving lost balls from lakes.

John Collinson became known as the "Golf Ball One" after being sentenced to six months in jail for stealing balls from the Whetstone Golf Club in Leicester.

The sentence was later quashed on appeal.

Collinson, 36, claimed the balls had been abandoned and he had not acted with dishonest intent.

He was freed after appeal judges ruled his sentence was "disproportionate" to his offence.