An 18-year-old from Naxxar, who had been put on probation for three years after he was found guilty of committing a series of thefts from different vehicles last November, was jailed for four years yesterday.

The man, whose name cannot be published since he was still a minor when he committed the crime, was re-arrested after probation officer Victoria Grech informed the Court of Criminal Appeal that he had been suspended from the Caritas drug rehabilitation programme.

The court had turned down an appeal filed by the Attorney General, confirming a judgement handed down by a magistrates’ court, by means of which the man was put on probation for three years.

The man had initially been charged with 20-year-old Lineker David Micallef and had confessed that he committed a series of thefts between 3 and 5 November.

He had been put on probation, being given the chance to follow a drug rehabilitation programme, but he had also been found guilty of relapsing.

Now that he was found to have breached two, possibly three, conditions listed in the probation order, he was suspended from the Caritas programme.

The court noted that the man had even been to a discotheque, in clear breach of one of the probation order’s conditions. He had probably even breached the house arrest order, which stated that he should return home not later than 10pm.

As a result, the Court of Criminal Appeal, presided over by Mr Justice Joseph Galea Debono, jailed the man for four years, ruling that the time spent in preventive custody with regard to this case, should be deducted.

Moreover, the court also advised a magistrates’ court to make sure that no conditions had been breached when the man had been put on probation for two years in relation to another case that happened about two and a half years ago.