Lilongwe Third Grade Magistrate’s Court has convicted and sentenced 18-year-old Evason Nelson to two years in prison for stealing a handbag from a lady at Lilongwe Bridge.

According to Lilongwe Police Deputy Public Relations Officer Foster Benjamin, Nelson was on Thursday found guilty on his own plea of stealing from a person, a case that contravenes Section 282 of the Penal code.

Benjamin explains that the court, through State Prosecutor Sub Inspector Bauleni Namasani, heard that Nelson, popularly known as Mdede, committed the crime in a broad daylight on March 29 2023.

His victim, a 26-year-old lady traveling from Mzuzu to Balaka for a funeral, was walking to Lilongwe Bus Depot when he snatched her bag away.

The court further learnt that the convict took off with the bag down to Lilongwe River.

He then took from the bag K55, 000 cash and three mobile phones worth K550, 000 before throwing it [the bag] into the river along with the victim’s ATM cards and national identity card.

Sub Inspector Benjamin adds that Nelson was arrested at his house at Kauma location and taken to the court where he admitted to stealing the bag.

In his mitigation, Nelson asked for forgiveness saying it was poverty that had driven him to commit the crime.

Prosecutor Namasani, however, argued that such attacks against innocent travelers, particularly along Lilongwe Bridge, are too common and worrisome; hence a stiff punishment on Nelson to halt such attacks.

Passing sentence, Third Grade Magistrate Bernadette Kaluba quashed the convict’s mitigation, saying poverty wasn’t an excuse to commit crimes.

She further said that Nelson, at such a youthful age, was supposed to be at school rather than engaging in criminal activities.

Kaluba went on to convict and sentence Nelson to two years imprisonment to deter other would-be offenders.

He comes from Kauma Village Traditional Authority Chimutu in Lilongwe District.

Source: UFULU FM 92.5