A YOUNG man has been jailed to a total of one year and 10 months for burgling a home and for lying to the Police.
Andrew Oura, 22, was sentenced recently after he pleaded guilty to the charges of burglary and giving false information to the Police.
He was jointly charged with John Oli who will be taking his plea to these charges on February 15.
Principal Magistrate, Felix Hollison, when sentencing Oura said the offence was committed at night when the complainant and his family were asleep at the material time.
“They were also extremely vulnerable because they were sleeping and would not be in a position to fully defend their property or themselves,” Magistrate Hollison said.
Magistrate Hollison added that the agreed facts confirmed that Oura and his co-accused planned the offending which means it was premeditated.
“The defendant had clearly committed the offence of simple larceny or stealing when he got away with the SBD30.
“The other properties such as the phones were dropped because the defendant was chased by the complainant, which means they were not given back in good faith.”
The incident occurred at around 5am on 5 September 2022 at Tasahe B, West Honiara at the complainant’s residence.
The complainant is a Malaysian national.
At around 5am on the day of offence, Oura and his co-accused entered into the complainant’s dwelling house and went into his bedroom whilst the occupants were sleeping.
It has been heard that the complainant heard a noise and woke up.
He saw Oura in his room searching for his mobile phone cover on the floor.
The complainant then chased Oura and while Oura was running away, he dropped two mobile phones and SBD 150.
Three mobile phones, SBD 150 and a carton of noodles were recovered, except for SBD 30.
During police investigation, Oura gave a statement to a Police Officer that it was his co-accused Oli who went into the complainant’s house and that he saw him ran past their area.
It was later revealed that the statement he gave was not true and misleading.
Magistrate Hollison imposed a final sentence of 18 months for the burglary charge and four months for giving false information to the Police.
He then ordered that both sentences run consecutively which gives a total sentence of one year and 10 months.
The sentence was also ordered to be backdated to 8 November 2022, the date that Oura was first remanded in custody.
Oura represented himself in court while the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions prosecuted the matter.
By ASSUMPTA BUCHANAN
Solomon Star, Honiara
