High Court in Suva judge, Justice Vincent Perera, warned a surety on Friday that it was his duty to ensure the accused person appears in court when his case is called.

Justice Perera issued the warning after the accused Joseph Christo­pher failed to appear in court.

The accused is charged with ag­gravated robbery where he alleg­edly stole $3400 cash in Nabua on November 17, 2016.

Christopher’s surety, who was pre­sent in court yesterday, told Justice Perera that the accused had phoned him a week earlier and assured him that he would attend his case.

Justice Perera told the surety that he was considering whether to re­mand him in custody for failure on the accused’s part to appear in court.

The man told the court that it was the first time he had been caught in such a situation and that he was only trying to help the accused who wanted to go to see his daughter.

He then informed Justice Perera that Christopher was in Lautoka.

Justice Perera issued a bench war­rant against the accused and or­dered the surety to go to the Police immediately after the case and in­form them of the accused’s wherea­bouts and disclose any information he had regarding the accused.

Justice Perera also advised State counsel Swastika Sharma to verify the information given to the court by Christopher’s second surety which appeared to have been false.

The court ordered that the second surety be produced in court on the next date.

The case was adjourned to Febru­ary 9, 2018 for mention.

Edited by Jonathan Bryce

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