A man who confesses to having in his possession utensils for brewing kwaso has been fined $10,000 recently in the Honiara Magistrate’s Court.
Primo Maehada, 53, was sentenced last Friday after pleaded guilty to the offence before Principal Magistrate Jim Seuika.
Mr Seuika then imposed a fine of $10,000 in default of six months imprisonment.
The accused has until December 19 to pay up the fine or failure to do so will see him serving six months in jail.
An order was also made to for the forfeiture and destruction of the utensils confiscated by the police.
Police raided the accused’s residence at Aekafo, Vara Creek area in Central Honiara on 31 October this year following information they received from their informants.
They confiscated a white bag containing 13 bottles of 1.5 litres pure kwaso, two 9 kilograms cylinder, four buckets filled with brewed kwaso, two PVC pipes connected to the cylinder and an empty container that was found inside the accused’s house.
In mitigation, the accused said he brewed kwaso and sell them to meet his children’s school fees.
The accused has nine children and is unemployed.
Mr Seuika before sentencing Maehada told him that the court cannot allow him to continue on with what he did to support his family.
He said there are other legal means available to earn an income to support his family.
He then told the accused that the court is an avenue to help and lessen the problem on kwaso.
Therefore, he said the court had to impose a deterrence sentence to deter other like minded offenders.
By ASSUMPTA BUCHANAN
