Liwonde Senior Resident Magistrate’s Court on Thursday sentenced a 25-year- old man, Aaron Mussa, to three years imprisonment for burglary and theft which is contrary to section 309 and 278 of the penal code.

Police Prosecutor, Mwale Misheck told the court that on May 17 and 18 this year the convict broke into the house of Watson Kamwendo of Chibwana Village and a Mr. Sauzande from Kaumphawi Village and stole one DVD player, flash disk and radio cassette player all valued at K75,000 and one Samsung cellphone of K25,000, respectively.

Misheck told the court that on May 17, 2020, Mussa broke into the house of Kamwendo when he went to Mlomba Village to visit his wife.

The court also heard that on the following day in the afternoon, the convict broke into the house of a Mr. Sauzande when he went to the barbershop to have his hair trimmed.

“The stolen items were identified when the convict brought the battery of the stolen phone to charge at the barbershop where Sauzande recognized it to be of the stolen phone,” the court learnt.

He said Sauzande who confessed that he stole the phone and other missing items started running away when asked where he had taken the battery and was eventually arrested by Liwonde Police Station.

In his submission, Misheck asked the court to hand down a stiffer punishment that would serve as both a lesson to the convict and a warning to would-be offenders.

In mitigation, Mussa asked the court to exercise leniency when passing sentence, claiming that he has never been in conflict with the law and that he supports two children.

However, Liwonde Senior Resident Magistrate, Muhammad Chande said burglary and theft were serious offences which deserve a custodial sentence.

Chande, therefore, sentenced Mussa to 36 months imprisonment for burglary and 24 months for theft.

Kadzuwa hails from Chibwana Village in the area of Traditional Authority (TA) Liwonde in Machinga.

Source:Mana