By Amadou Jadama
Senior Magistrate I Jallow of the Brusubi court yesterday convicted and sentenced one Mustapha Barrow to a mandatory jail term of two years and six months for stealing a motor vehicle from one Molifa Kuyateh.
The court further ordered the convict to pay D600,000 to the complainant as a compensation in default to serve one year in prison.
He was found guilty on a single count of stealing.
According to prosecutors led by Inspector Jaiteh, Mr Barrow has another pending case at the Banjul magistrates’ court.
The accused, who was unrepresented, begged the court to temper justice with mercy, saying that he is the sole breadwinner of his family and his siblings are young and he is responsible for their education.
In passing her sentence, the magistrate said: “I hereby make the following findings: The convict’s level of culpability is high considering the high level of planning and his entire defense was a lie; he has no remorse as to what he did. The level of harm is greater considering there was a huge impact on the victim, the vehicle was not recovered and there is high economic loss on the complainant.
Based on the above, I hereby resolve that the established category is greater harm and higher culpability which falls under category one. The sentencing range for this category is the starting point of five years imprisonment and or to ten years imprisonment. But considering that he is a first-time offender and being a young man, I hereby invoke section 34 of the criminal offences Act 2025 in favor of the convict and I make the following orders.
The convict is sentenced to serve two years and six months imprisonment and ordered to compensate the complainant in the sum of D600,000 in default to serve one year imprisonment, and parties have a right to appeal”.
