The Intermediate Court on Saturday handed a two-year-and-four-month jail sentence to a local man following his guilty plea to a charge of trespassing into a house for theft.
Judge Pengiran Masni binti Pengiran Haji Bahar said that the sentence is one that is enough to deter a recalcitrant offender and reflects the seriousness of the offence.
Prosecutor Kamal Ariffin bin Ismail revealed that Muhammad Hasrie bin Abdullah had trespassed into a house at Jalan Nakhoda Manis, Seria during the wee hours between September 26 and 27, 2023.
The prosecution further laid out the facts, where at 5.30am on September 27, 2023, the owner of the house was about to go to work when she discovered the cabinet in her living room had been left open.
She then checked the living room and discovered several of her belongings gone and immediately suspected that her house had been broken into.
She continued to check the kitchen and found the kitchen sliding windows were also left open. The discovery prompted her to lodge a report at Seria Police Station.
Police investigations led to the defendant’s arrest the same day.
The investigations showed that the defendant was riding his bicycle at the Seria housing area when he saw a house that piqued his interest. He then opened the gates and searched for unlocked doors or windows.
The defendant tried to open the backdoor leading to the kitchen but failed. He then checked the sliding window and found that it was unlocked.
He then entered the kitchen before proceeding to the living room. From the living room, the defendant took a wallet, an Apple watch, a Luminox watch, an iPhone, a pink handbag and a backpack along with a Dell laptop and a white laptop bag.
The defendant also admitted that he left the house through the kitchen back door.
Police recovered some of the stolen items. The items that were not recovered, the defendant admitted, had been thrown away while the money that he found in the wallet spent on food. – Fadley Faisal
