Fifth prison term for thief

A Libyan drug addict was yesterday jailed for the fifth time in a row after he admitted to stealing from three cars on Sunday night.

The 41-year-old thief, Abdul Baset Dabia, who lives in Sliema, was jailed for three years after he was caught stealing from a car in Msida at around 2 a.m.

When questioned by the police he admitted to stealing from three cars to fuel his drug habit.

This is not the first time Mr Dabia has got into trouble. In 2005, he spent a year in jail after assaulting four police officers and in 2006 he was imprisoned for driving a vehicle without a licence.

A more unusual incident occurred in 2006 when Mr Dabia connected his home electricity supply to the supply from a lamp post. For that he received a one-year suspended jail term.

He is currently serving a 15-month jail term after making use of counterfeit bank notes and relapsing and was yesterday jailed by Magistrate Lawrence Quintano for another year.

In November 2008 he was also jailed after he admitted to stealing hi-fi equipment from a van.