Father Of Four Loses Appeal
By Rol Ezam

Bandar Seri Begawan - A local man and father of four who was sentenced to four years imprisonment, appealed in the High Court yesterday for sympathy and for his sentence to be reduced or made concurrent, but his plea was dismissed by Chief Justice Mohammed Saied.

The appellant, Tamil Haji Johari was convicted on his own plea of guilty of two offences of theft at a dwelling house. The offences occurred at two different houses on August and September last year.

In the first offence, he gained entry into a house through the rear window, which was not locked at the time, and from the bedroom stole $21 from a handbag and three pieces of silk material.

The second offence, he once again gained entry into a house by forcing open the kitchen window and stole a number of items including a wallet containing $230, some Korean currency, a Korean Air Visa Card, a Korean YES card, one HSBC ATM card, two mobile phones, a Canon camera, a Samsung Video Handy Camera and a computer laptop.

The appellant admitted he had sold the cameras, the laptop computer and one mobile phone for a total of $410. However, the other items were not recovered.

For each offence, the appellant was sentenced to consecutive terms of two years imprisonment on each count.

Earlier in his mitigation to the Court, he said he has four children, his wife was unemployed and it was difficult to feed them. He alleged that during investigations the police had promised that if he returned the items that he had stolen they would ask the Magistrate to impose a minimum sentence, but they forgot their promise.

He further said that he would turn a new leaf and would not be a burden to the society and the government, and that he now appreciated that what he had done was wrong in his religion.

The appellant had two previous convictions in 1997, lurking house-trespass by night or housebreaking by night contrary to section 457 and of committing mischief by fire or any explosive substance with intent to cause damage to property, contrary to section 435.

He was sentenced to three years imprisonment for the offence contrary to section 457 and six years jail with 6 strokes of the cane, for an offence contrary to section 435. However, the sentence was concurrent with the first count.

The appellant was released from prison in May 2001 and again committed the offence in August/ September last year. (Courtesy of Borneo Bulletin)

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