Thanks to a 14-year-old boy, three burglars were caught after they stole from his parent’s home during a village feast, leading yesterday to one of them being jailed and the other placed on probation.

It was during the village feast of St Helen in Birkirkara that Dylan Zarb had gone home to change his clothes while his parents were selling drinks from their shop. As he approached the house he saw one man standing in the doorway and rushed over.

Another two men were inside the house and all three escaped covering their faces with a bed sheet and taking gold jewellery and €650 in cash.

The police later arrested the men, Anthony Borg, 29, of St Paul’s Bay, Jonathan Calleja, 30, and Etienne Farrugia, 34 both from Birkirkara. The teenager managed to identify one of them.

Mr Farrugia has already admitted to his involvement and was placed on probation for three years while Mr Calleja and Mr Borg contested the charges.

Magistrate Edwina Grima found them guilty of the theft and jailed Mr Borg for 18 months after taking into consideration that he was currently serving a jail term related to theft and had been given opportunities to reform but failed to take them.

When it came to Mr Calleja,the magistrate said that he had tried to reform himself, had a stable job and family and had not committed any other crimes since 2009.

After taking this into consideration, she put him on probation.