The Kitwe High Court has sentenced five men to 20 and 25 years imprisonment with hard labour for stealing over K1.3 million from an Automated Teller Machine (ATM). Livingstone High Court Judge Chilombo Phiri meted out the sentence yesterday after she found all the five accused persons involved guilty of the offence.

This is in a case where Fred Kaonga, Christopher Chansa, Benson Mwansa, Peter Kasongo and Jacob Mfula were jointly charged with aggravated robbery contrary to the laws of Zambia.

Particulars of the case were that the five, on January 12, 2014, in Kitwe, jointly and while acting together with other unknown persons, and whilst armed with offensive weapons, stole K1,377,590 from a Standard Chartered Bank ATM in Kitwe.
It was also alleged that at the time of such stealing, the five threatened to, or actually used violence or force against Matilda Zulu.
Delivering judgement in the matter, Justice Phiri said she was satisfied that the State had proven its case against the five beyond any reasonable doubt.

Justice Phiri established that the five convicts worked together and planned to rob the bank of huge sums of money.
“The whole robbery was arranged and well-planned by the five accused persons,” she said. She said according to the evidence on record, the first accused person Fred Kaonga was a custodian of the bank’s ATM and was in charge of opening trunks that contained money.

Justice Phiri said on the material day, three men entered the ATM room after Kaonga, who was the custodian opened for them and that it was the same Kaonga that opened trunks containing money. She said when the accused persons entered the ATM room, they threatened to shoot at anyone that would look at them.

Justice Phiri sentenced Kaonga to 25 years imprisonment with hard labour while the others were given 20-year jail terms. She said that the fact that Kaonga breached the trust that the bank had in him was an aggravating circumstance. Earlier in mitigation, the convicts pleaded for maximum leniency as they were first offenders and remorseful.