Fadley Faisal
The Intermediate Court yesterday handed a sentence of three years and four months’ jail with two whippings to a permanent resident for a theft-related offence.
Rosyadi bin Abdullah pleaded guilty to a charge of housebreaking by night to commit theft in Judge Hajah Hazarena binti Pehin Orang Kaya Setia Jaya Dato Paduka Haji Hurairah’s court.
The judge gave a reduction from her original starting point for sentence citing the defendant’s instant guilty plea.
Prosecutor Aeny Zullizam revealed that the defendant had struck up a plan in a meeting at the defendant’s house to steal from a convenience store in Kampong Lumapas with an accomplice, who had been dealt with by the court earlier.
That same night on January 25, the duo set out bringing with them a sack containing a crowbar and a metal cutter, and headed towards the store.
The duo realised that the store was still open for business and decided to wait it out until it closes.
After observing that all of the store’s workers had left home, they went to the back of the store and used a broom to point a CCTV camera away when they noticed it.
They cut a padlock and forced open a door with the tools they brought along.
The defendant entered the store while his accomplice acted as a lookout.
The defendant went to the cashier area and switched off the CCTV cameras.
He took cash and mobile top up cards from a drawer. The accomplice entered the store as they searched around for things to steal.
The duo left the store where the defendant handed his accomplice about BND1,000 in cash and they then both went separate ways.
That same night, the store’s worker had gone home but returned to the store somehow, only to find that the padlocks had been cut off and found the store ransacked.
He filed a police report and investigations, with the aid of the CCTV footage capturing the defendant moving the camera away using the broomstick, led to the duo’s arrest.
Police unearthed that the duo had stolen BND4,000 in cash and BND570 worth of mobile top up cards.
A portion of the cash and cards were recovered, while the rest was used by the defendant and his accomplice.
