Jailed for theft

A woman has been jailed for two- and-a-half years after a court upheld an appeal filed by the Attorney General.

Claire Cassar had been given a two-year jail term suspended for four years and also jailed for six months after she admitted to stealing car registration plates, stealing three cars and attaching the stolen plates to one of the cars and relapsing.

The Attorney General filed an appeal claiming that, since Ms Cassar was a relapser, the first court could not have given her a suspended jail term.

Mr Justice Joseph Galea Debono, sitting in the Court of Appeal, upheld the appeal and ordered that the suspended jail term be converted into an effective imprisonment of two years duration.

The judge confirmed the rest of the original judgment in which Mr Cassar had also been jailed for six months, bringing her total jail term to two-and-a-half years.

Police Inspector Joseph Mercieca prosecuted.