Court jails student for stealing wristwatch

A Grade 1 Area Court in Karu, Abuja, on Friday sentenced a 23-year-old student for stealing a Piaget wristwatch worth N100,000. The Presiding Judge, Mr Hassan Ishaq, found the convict, who hails from Maraba in Nasarawa state, guilty of the two-count charge of criminal breach of trust and theft, and sentenced him to seven months […]

A Grade 1 Area Court in Karu, Abuja, on Friday sentenced a 23-year-old student for stealing a Piaget wristwatch worth N100,000.

The Presiding Judge, Mr Hassan Ishaq, found the convict, who hails from Maraba in Nasarawa state, guilty of the two-count charge of criminal breach of trust and theft, and sentenced him to seven months imprisonment.

Ishaq however, gave the convict an option to pay N17, 000 as fine, as he pleaded guilty and begged for the court’s mercy.

The magistrate ordered the recovered wristwatch be returned to the complainant.

Earlier, the Prosecutor, Mr Mahmud Ismail’a, told the court that on September 27, the complainant, one Alamin Garba of Karu, reported the case at Karu police station.

He alleged that the complainant had accommodated the defendant in his apartment, having attended a birthday party and stayed out late in the night in Karu.

Ismail’a told the court that as soon as the defendant left the complainant’s apartment in the morning, he discovered that his luxury Piaget wristwatch purchased for N100, 000, was missing.

He said the complainant immediately reported the matter at the police station, whose operatives promptly arrested the defendant in his home and found in his possession, the stolen wristwatch.

The prosecutor, who said the offences contravened Sections 312 and 287 of the Penal code, added that the recovered wristwatch was in police custody. (NAN)