Court gives addict chance to kick habit

A young man was yesterday fined Lm50 for breaching probation conditions after a magistrate heard that he had learnt from his own experience and was in the residential phase of a drug rehabilitation programme.

Stephen Young, 23, of Tarxien, had been given a two-year jail term suspended for four years and put on probation for three years for burgling two shops and trying to steal from a garage between January and March 2002.

But in March 2004 the probation officer informed the court that Mr Young was not abiding by the conditions laid down in the probation order.

However, as time passed, Magistrate Consuelo Scerri Herrera heard that Mr Young understood the importance of probation and had successfully started attending a rehabilitation programme.

The magistrate ruled that the court always did all it could to help those with a drug problem and always gave them an opportunity to overcome the habit. In this case, Mr Young had learnt from his own experience and, for this reason, the court felt that a fine was appropriate in the circumstances.

Police Inspector Carmelo Bartolo prosecuted.