A man who escaped from a drug rehabilitation facility and committed a theft from an aparthotel in Paceville was today sentenced to 15 months in jail, with a magistrate recommending to the prison authorities so he does not lose the progress he had made so far.

Oivend Xuereb, 30, escaped from a court-ordered, Caritas-run rehabilitation programme just one week before it was meant to end and had been registering "very good progress," the court heard.

Magistrate Claire Stafrace Zammit heard Fleur Bianco from the Prison Inmates Programme testify that Mr Xuereb had been following the programme for 10 months and had never given them any trouble. He had also found full time employment while he was following the programme and no complaints had ever been received from his employer.

She explained that at the beginning of the week when he escaped, she had informed him that he had completed the programme and was being sent to jail to continue serving his prison sentence. She said he would have had to stop working and lose any privileges given to him while he was at the programme.

"I saw a big change in him. The programme is usually eight months long but if we see that people are promising, we extend the programme by two months and Oivend was completing his tenth month," Ms Bianco said.

Taking this into consideration, Magistrate Stafrace Zammit sentenced Mr Xuereb to 15 months in jail and recommended that his progress is not lost.