A teenager was jailed for a year yesterday after he admitted to breaking into tourists' hotel rooms and stealing hundreds of dollars in cash.

"I have a mental illness and it's not going to stop on its own," said Kivon Baker, 19, as he asked Magistrate Carlisle Greaves not to send him to prison for breaking and entering into the rooms of three tourists at a St. George's hotel on the nights of July 16 and August 6 while they slept.

He also admitted to stealing a handbag and a wallet, each of which contained $350 and $300 in cash respectively.

"Getting locked up all the time doesn't help. I'm sorry for everything. I think I've got a problem. I don't know what I do sometimes. It's like I've got a split personality. I don't even need a lot of the things I take," Baker said.

But Crown Counsel Shade? Subair urged Mr. Greaves to impose an immediate custodial sentence as she feared for other women who lived in apartments alone who might become Baker's next victims.

Mr. Greaves pointed out that Baker was caught while on three years probation imposed for another offence and added that a year in prison was the maximum sentence he was allowed to impose. But he regretted the fact that he did not think it was enough.

" "Society must be protected from you. The only way to do that is to use prison until some other method can be found of dealing with you. The sentence is not even sufficient to justice in this case."

Mr. Greaves sentenced Baker to a year in prison for each of the three charges. The sentences will run concurrently.