A 23-year-old man was jailed for two-and-a-half years for stealing a mobile phone during the operative time of a suspended jail term.

Yousef Kalifa, born in Libya but who has a Serbian passport, admitted to stealing the Samsung Galaxy S6 from a tourist in St Julians on July 11 at about 4am. He was also charged with committing the crime during the operative time of an 18-month suspended jail term.

After filing his guilty plea the young man asked the court, with the help of an interpreter, to show mercy towards him.

"Please give me a chance. Last time. I was drunk," he said from the dock.

Magistrate Carol Peralta, speaking in his signature thundery voice, told the man that being drunk was no excuse.

"Next time don't drink as there is no excuse to wrong others," he said as he asked the interpreter to explain to the man that he was a guest in Malta.

"He is a guest in this country and, while we welcome him with open arms, the fact remains that he is a guest which means he should make an extra effort to behave well," he said adding that this was not the first time Mr Kalifa broke the law.

"Will we continue excusing him? Is he always drunk?" he said as he handed down a one month jail term.

The magistrate went on to order that the time that he spent in preventive custody be deducted from his jail term. He also ordered that the 18-month suspended jail term be brought into effect resulting in a total jail term of two-and-a-half years.