Godfrey Ndaba[24] was this week brought before the Urban Court President, Kgosi Dikwalo Monametsi, charged with obtaining by false pretences.
According to evidence brought before the court by Central Police Officer, Constable Phirinyana, the accused went to BABA’S pawn shop in Tlokweng and told Patrick Sepoe [26], who works as a sales assistant, that he wanted to buy a Polo Classic which was worth P32 000.
He asked Patrick to escort him to the bank so that he could cash the money.
On the way he told Patrick that he is working at UB and asked him to pass by his workplace.
Phirinyana told the court that at UB the accused borrowed a Nokia 2100 cell phone worth P800 from Patrick because he wanted to send someone a call back and he was given a phone.
He then asked the complainant to wait for him as he picked something from his office but never came back until his arrest by the Central Police Officers.
But by then he had already sold the phone to a stranger.
During his mitigation, Ndaba told the court that he is taking care of his kid who has HIV/AIDS and told the court that his girlfriend has since passed away.
He asked the court not to lock him up because no one would take care of the daughter. Before passing the sentence, Monametsi told him that what he did can take him to jail for seven years and said cell phone theft is increasing at an alarming rate.
The court told Ndaba that it is clear that he is an accomplished criminal as shown by his preparedness to pay someone’s taxi fare to win the trust of potential victims before robbing them.
The court sentenced him to one year in jail wholly suspended for three years plus five strokes on the bum.
He was told to refund P800 for the phone he stole before 30th June 2006 failing which he would go to jail for six months.
