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State v Karalo [2015] FJMC 137; Criminal Case 207.2015 (16 November 2015)

IN THE MAGISTRATE'S COURT AT SAVUSAVU
CRIMINAL JURISDICTION

Criminal Case No. 207 of 2015

STATE

V

USAMATE KARALO

Prosecution : Sergent Rinesh
Accused : In Person

Sentence : 16 November 2015

SENTENCE

1. The Accused, Usamate Karalo, you are before this court for sentence after being convicted to five counts of Theft, contrary to sections 291(1) of the Crimes Decree 2009.
   
2. You waived your rights to counsel and the charges were put to you on 20 August 2015, after the full disclosures has been served to you. You pleaded guilty to all the five charges. I find the plea to be unequivocal.
   
3. The summary of facts was read to you on 20 August 2015, where you admitted the summary of facts and you are convicted as charged for all the five counts of theft.
   
4. The brief summary of facts is that, the Accused and the five victims are all members of the 3D rugby team. At about 8pm on 3 July 2015 all the team members including the victims went to sleep and all their mobile phones were on top of the table in the living room charging. On the next day 4 July 2015, they all woke up at about 6am and discovered that all their mobile phones were stolen. The Accused was away drinking at Tavern nightclub, went to the camp, saw all the mobile phones on the table and stole all the phones. The Accused admitted stealing the phones during the interview. Only one mobile phone was recovered.
   
5. You submitted oral mitigation on the same day after your admission to the summary of facts.
   
6. The maximum penalty prescribed for Theft is 10 years imprisonment. The sentencing tariff was set in Vakarauvanua v The State [2004] FJHC 116, for 2 to 9 months for simple theft and 9 months and more for repeated offenders.
   
7. This is a case of repeated offenders where you are convicted and sentence for four counts of theft from 2010 to 2014. In sentencing, my starting point is 22 months. I add 8 months for the aggravating factors and that increases your sentence to 30 months. The High Court in the case of Vilimone v State [2008] FJHC 12, recognised that one third of the sentence should be reduce for an early guilty plea. I reduce 10 months for your early guilty plea and that reduces your sentence to 20 months.
   

8. I reduce 6 months for your mitigation and that reduces your sentence to 14 months imprisonment. I have noted from your criminal record that your last conviction is on 21 May 2014 where you are sentence for one count of Theft and your sentence is 6 months imprisonment and suspended for 2 years. It was during your suspension period when you committed this offence. It appears that you are not learning your lesson after been given the second chance. You take advantage of the court leniency. It appears that you fail to reform yourself when you were given the opportunity.

9. I have noted that you are remanded for this case for a period of about 4 months. In compliance to the Bavoro v State [2013] FJHC1, I further reduce 4 months from your sentence to reflect the period you spent in remand. That reduces your sentence to 10 months.

10. Your final sentence are as follows:-

Count 1 – Theft – 10 months imprisonment.

Count 2 – Theft - 10 months imprisonment.

Count 3 – Theft - 10 months imprisonment.

Count 4 – Theft - 10 months imprisonment.

Count 5 – Theft - 10 months imprisonment.

Sentence for all the counts are to be run concurrently and to be served with immediate effects.

28 days to appeal.

C. M. Tuberi
RESIDENT MAGISTRATE