Kitwe Man Goes In For Stealing TV Remote Control

A 25-YEAR-OLD man of Ndeke township in Kitwe has been sentenced six months imprisonment with hard labour by the Kitwe Magistrate’s Court for stealing a GOtv remote control from a police post.
Magistrate Maxwell Mainsa, however, suspended the sentence imposed on Newton Siwila for six months provided he does not commit a similar offence within that period.
This is a case in which Siwila, of house number 2055 New Ndeke in Kitwe, is charged with theft.
The offence is contrary to Sections 265 and 272 of the Penal Code Chapter 87 of the Laws of Zambia.
Particulars of the offence were that Siwila, on October 24, 2013 in Kitwe, stole a GOtv decoder remote control worth K100 belonging to the Zambia Police Service.
Siwila admitted the charge when he appeared for plea.
He told the court that he had no lawful justification to steal the remote control but that he was drunk when he committed the offence.
Passing the sentence yesterday, Mr Mainsa said illness is not a mitigatory factor because prisons countrywide have qualified medical personnel to attend to sick inmates.
“And if a person goes on a drinking adventure to intoxicate the mind and thereafter commits a crime, that person cannot plead drunkenness as a defence,” Mr Mainsa said.
He sentenced Siwila to six months imprisonment with hard labour suspended for six months provided that he does not commit any crime.
In mitigation, Siwila begged the court to forgive him because he is sickly and he would not survive in prison.
Facts before the court were that on the material day, Siwila’s aunt was at home when one of her children showed her a remote control which did not belong to the family.
The woman suspected that Siwila was the one who took the remote control to her house.
The court heard that Siwila did not give a satisfactory answer when his aunt asked him where he got the remote control from.
The woman decided to take Siwila to the police station and on arrival, the police officer on duty identified the remote control as the one that had gone missing from the police post.

Posted by Editor on November 4, 2013. Filed under CRIME. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry