The ACT Magistrates Court has ruled a man who used an iPhone application to track down his stolen iPad was not breaking the law.

When a man identified in court as Mr S had an iPad stolen from his home, he used the tracking application to locate it.

The man managed to activate the iPad and hear a ring tone inside the garage of the home.

Mr S went to the police, who searched the property and found numerous stolen goods.

But the homeowner refused to be fingerprinted over the robberies on the grounds that the search warrant was issued with tainted evidence.

Lawyers for the homeowner argued that in finding his iPad, Mr S had electronically and physically trespassed on the man's property.

On Friday, Magistrate Lorraine Walker ruled the evidence was obtained lawfully.

While Magistrate Lorraine Walker admitted a level of technological ignorance, she related it to the way a sniffer dog can legally use a person's odour to sniff out drugs.

She said that likewise, electronic radio waves are also in the public domain.

Magistrate Walker said if it was trespassing, then every time somebody turns on their radio they too would be breaking the law.