Chitipa First Grade Magistrate Court on Wednesday sentenced a watchman, Yotamu Nyondo, 55, a watchman at Tubepoka Development Initiative (TDI) to three years imprisonment with hard labour for stealing two motorcycles from the work place.
The court heard that the TDI offices were broken into during the night of 21 and 22 April, 2020 and two Yamaha motorcycles, registration numbers CP 4042 and CP 4043 valued at a total of K7 million were stolen.
According to First Grade Magistrate Billy Ngosi, Police investigations indicated that there was no forced entry of the offices and it was concluded the robbers used keys to unlock the doors.
He said upon being asked the where about of the offices’ keys, Nyondo said that he had lost them and had also gone to visit his sick daughter at a hospital on the said night.
“However, police established that Nyondo had not reported to his employers that he had lost the keys and they also established from the watchman’s family that he had not gone to the hospital as per his claim,” said Ngosi as he read out the ruling.
He said police arrested Nyondo and charged him with breaking into a building and committing a felony contrary to Section 311 (1) of the Penal Code to which he pleaded not guilty when he appeared before court, prompting the state to parade four witnesses.
In his ruling, Ngosi said the evidence by the state had proved beyond reasonable doubt that Nyondo committed the crimes and therefore, convicted him on the offenses.
In mitigation, Nyondo pleaded with the court for leniency, saying he is asthmatic but the state through Police Prosecutor Inspector James Kanyumbu asked the court to give the accused a stiffer punishment, arguing that the theft of motorcycles was becoming rampant in the district.
Magistrate Ngosi said the accused deserved a stiff punishment although he was a first time offender because as a watchman, he had set a very bad precedent as his duty was to protect his employer’s property, hence sentenced him to three years imprisonment with hard labour.
Yotamu Nyondo hails from Ngoya Village in Traditional Authority Mwaulambya in Chitipa District.
-manna-
