A 20-year-old 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 five years yesterday.

Lineker David Micallef was re-arrested after senior probation officer Miriam Sevasta 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 another court, by means of which the man was put on probation for four years.

The man had initially been charged with an 18-year-old; both had confessed that he committed a series of thefts between 3 and 5 November.

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

The court noted that despite the court’s efforts to give the man the opportunity to follow a drug rehabilitation programme, it now appeared that the trust that the court showed in him was unfounded.

As a result, the Court of Criminal Appeal, presided over by Mr Justice Joseph Galea Debono, jailed the man for five years.

Moreover, the court also advised a magistrates’ court to make sure that no conditions had been breached when the man had been given a six-month jail term suspended for four years in May 2004.