Two young men were jailed for eight years and three months between them for staging a supermarket hold up using a plastic pistol and stealing two boxes of cigarette.

The thieves, 24-year-old, Steve Spiteri and Clayton Cremona, 20, burst into AGP discount store in Mensija three years ago shouting "Hold-up, hold-up" and waving a plastic pistol while trying to take the cash register containing about €700. However, they could not unplug it from the wall socket and so decided to abandon the attempt. Instead, they took two boxes of cigarettes and hit the shop owner on the head before they escaped.

Magistrate Lawrence Quintano heard that the two ran outside the shop, jumped into a car and sped off but were caught a few minutes later.

The court took into consideration the fact that Mr Spiteri had helped the police in various investigations, some of which were serious cases. However, the magistrate pointed out that the accused had relapsed, committed the crime during the operative period of a suspended sentence, the crime was serious and had a colourful criminal record.

Thus, the court brought into force a two-year suspended jail term Mr Spiteri had been given and added two and a half years for the supermarket theft.

Mr Cremona was jailed for three years and nine months after the court took into consideration the fact that his criminal record was not exactly clean. He was also fined €2,340, which will be converted into six months imprisonment if it remained unpaid.

Police Superintendent Silvio Valletta and Police Inspector Joseph Mercieca prosecuted.