Two teenage brothers from Birkirkara were yesterday jailed for 14 months each for breaching their probation orders when they told the court they would rather go to jail than be under the "strict" care of a probation officer.

In the original judgement, handed down on October 18, 2001, Magistrate Consuelo Scerri Herrera had found the two boys, aged 16 and 19 years, guilty of stealing Leonard Grech`s Morris 1100 in Attard on April 6, 2000.

The boys` names are not being published because they were minors at the time of the commission of the crime.

They were also found guilty of burgling the Price Club supermarket in Birkirkara, causing less than Lm500 in damage, stealing alcohol from the supermarket on March 31 and using obscene language in public.

The 16-year-old boy was also found guilty of stealing more alcohol from the supermarket on March 28 and causing less than Lm500 in damage to the premises.

He had been given a one-year jail term suspended for two years and his elder brother had been put on probation for three years. Both boys were put under the care of probation officer Mariella Camilleri for three years.

But Magistrate Scerri Herrera heard how on February 20, 2002, the probation officer notified the courts the brothers were not abiding by her directives.

On March 5, 2002 they appeared in court with their lawyer and declared they did not want to remain under the probation officer`s "strict" care. They preferred going to jail.

In a sitting on April 4, 2002, the probation officer was called to testify and she said the brothers were not making progress. They were keeping company with people who led a criminal way of life.

The probation officer also said the boys had already packed their bags to go to jail.

Magistrate Scerri Herrera noted that the probation was not having the desired effects on the brothers and that they were not taking advantage of the opportunity granted to them by the courts.

Police Inspectors Mario Bonello and Carmelo Bartolo prosecuted.