A 19-year-old man, with a “serious stealing habit”, was jailed for a total of 42 months after he admitted to breaking into seven cars and stealing from a school while he was on probation.

Shaun Caruana, from Paola, admitted to stealing several items from six of the cars and damaging all seven cars between October and December last year.

He also admitted to stealing from San Ġorġ Preca school in Pietà on the night of December 28.

The cars in question were parked in Floriana, Valletta and Ħamrun. He was also charged with damaging the vehicles and committing the crimes while on probation.

Magistrate Doreen Clarke took note of his early guilty plea, the serious nature of the charges and the fact that he committed them while on probation for three years.

She jailed him for 26 months for the theft-related charges and jailed him for a further 16 months for breaching probation.

During his arraignment in February, Mr Caruana got an extra five days in detention for contempt of court after a courtroom disturbance over his police statements.

Mr Caruana, who said he worked as a dishwasher at weddings, told the magistrate he had a serious stealing habit. He said he resorted to theft when he was young because he had no one to feed him and therefore was forced to steal things.

He was then escorted out of the courtroom but he burst back into the hall minutes later, while another arraignment was in progress, to ask the lawyer for a copy of his statements. His behaviour led the magistrate to find him guilty of contempt.

Police inspectors Arthur Mercieca and Priscilla Caruana prosecuted.