Fadley Faisal
The Magistrate’s Court yesterday handed a jail sentence of 18 months to a local man after he pleaded guilty to two instances of theft.
Ganesh @ Shaun Carballo Sambantham, 27, went to a shop in Beribi by hailing a ride before noon on February 28, Magistrate Dewi Norlelawati binti Haji Abdul Hamid heard.
He went into the store and stole two video doorbells, a safe box, an access switch and a multi-folding pocket knife and hid the items in his backpack.
As he left the store, a staff member alerted the other workers who detained the defendant outside and discovered the items in his bag.
He was handed over to the police.
Investigations unearthed that he had also committed a theft on February 17.
Prosecutor Aeny Zullizam revealed in court that the defendant had gone to a hardware store in Kuala Belait in the afternoon where he stole two welding torches and hid them in his backpack.
As he was about to leave, a salesgirl came across the live feed footage from a CCTV camera showing the defendant in action, ran towards him and tried to stop him.
The defendant left the store, ran towards a car and drove away.
The salesgirl filed a police report leading to the case.
The defendant had sold the torches worth over BND500 for a small sum.
