A man was jailed for a total period of two years and nine months after he was found guilty of theft during the operative term of a two-year suspended jail term.

Floyd Attard, 20, from Senglea, was found guilty of stealing a Daihatsu Charade from Tarxien in February this year and of stealing a mobile phone from inside a car parked in Zabbar.

Handing down his judgement, Magistrate Tonio Micallef Trigona said Attard committed these crimes during the operative period of a two-year suspended jail term handed down in March 2004. As a result, these two years in jail now come into force.

He said the defendant has been given various opportunities to get his life back in order to kick the drug habit. He jailed him for a total period of two years and nine months and urged him to start and successfully complete a drug rehabilitation programme.

Police inspector Michael Mallia prosecuted.