A kombi conductor on Broadhurst Route 2 in Gaborone, Tebogo Rapalai, 19, of Boseja in Mochudi was this Tuesday arraigned before the Urban Customary Court President, Kgosi Dikwalo Monametsi, charged with obtaining by false pretences.
The complainant, Lydia Montsho, 22, a shop assistant in Gaborone, told the court that she had a problem with her Nokia 3310 cell phone and wanted to buy another phone. Her close friend referred her to the accused.
State Prosecutor from Central Police Station, Constable Ditiro Phirinyana, told the court that Tebogo brought to Lydia a sealed cell phone box and told the complainant that he was selling a Nokia 2610 cell phone for P150. The complainant then gave him the P150 but the accused also demanded the defective cell phone saying the amount he had charged her was too little. Lydia handed over her Nokia 3310 cell phone.
Phirinyana told the court that after an hour, the complainant opened the box only to find a cell phone charger and a cell phone face sellotaped to a small rock in the box. She reported to the Central Police who arrested the accused some days later.
Kgosi Monametsi told the court that Tebogo Rapalai was a serious criminal who had planned all this before he went to rob the complainant. He sentenced him to six months in jail, wholly suspended for three years, plus four strokes on the bum. He was also ordered to compensate the complainant with P450, which Tebogo paid on the same day.
