An 18-year-old boy who yesterday pleaded guilty to burglary and theft was advised in the High Court that there were other ways of obtaining funds to pay for his education.

And, one such way was to utilise the Tertiary Education Loans Scheme (TELS) the accused, Roko Mate, was told by Justice Daniel Goundar. Mate was represented by Legal Aid Commission lawyer Lice Manulevu.

In mitigation, Ms Manulevu said the accused was raised by a single parent and lived with his sister and mother.

She said the accused had wanted to further his education at a catering school in Nasese. However, his mother told him to wait.

Aggrieved by this he decided to take matters into his own hands and decided to break into the complainant’s house. His intention was to sell off the stolen items and use the proceeds to pay for his education.

State lawyer Unaisi Tamanikaiyaroi appeared for the Prosecution.

Mate admitted in court that he broke into a house in Cunningham, outside Suva, belonging to Naresh Prasad with the intention of stealing. He also admitted stealing a ProMax drilling machine valued at $139, a ProMax circular saw valued at $159, a pair of runners worth $377, a length of rope worth $10, a jacket costing $8 and a drill beat set valued at $9.50. The total value of the items stolen was $702.50.

On the day of the incident the complainant returned at around 5:15pm to find his home ransacked. His clothes and belongings were scattered. He then saw that the backdoor was open. The accused was arrested on February 13, 2018 and escorted to the Valelevu Police Station. Full recovery of the stolen items was made which were still in Police custody.

Ms Tamanikaiyaroi informed Justice Goundar that they had amended the information regarding the particulars of the items stolen and had excluded an item which was incorrectly included in the charge.

Ms Manulevu had no objections to the amendment made and the information was read out in open court.

Ms Tamanikaiyaroi said the aggravating factors of the case was that the accused had damaged the complainant’s property while committing the offence. Ms Manulevu said the accused was a first and young offender and the defence was seeking a non-custodial sentence. Justice Goundar extended the accused’s bail and will sentence him on April 3, 2018.  

Edited by George Kulamaiwasa

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