One Foday Suwareh was on Monday convicted and sentenced by Magistrate Lamin George, of the Bundung Magistrates Court, after he was found guilty of robbery.

According to the particulars of the offence, the accused on the 25th day of October 2009, at the Tourist Development Area (TDA) in Senegambia, robbed one Jean Boorman, a British tourist of her digital camera, thereby committed an offence. Chief Inspector Mballow, the prosecutor handling the case gave the court the facts.  

He said it happened on 25th day of October 2009 in the early morning hours when the complainant Jean Boorman and her husband Philip Boorman, all British tourists residing at Kairaba Beach Hotel, were walking along the beach side at the Tourist Development Area (TDA), when the convict, Foday Suwareh, came from behind and took away the digital camera of the complainant. He stated that the complainant and her husband chased the convict but could not get it (the camera),from  him  and the matter was reported to the Tourist Security Unit (TSU) at Senegambia.

The convict, he added, was later arrested by TSU officers but before the arrest he said the convict disposed the camera, he sold the camera to one Haddy Jobe in the sum of D500, the convict later led the TSU officers to Haddy Jobe’s residence, where the camera was later recovered. He pleaded guilty to the charge and the facts stated in court and was convicted and sentenced.

In his plea of mitigation, the convict told the court that ‘robbery is not his habit’ and he never did it before. “I regretted what I have done,” he told the court. In his judgement, Magistrate George said he consider the convict as a first time offender and sentenced him to five years imprisonment without an option  to  a fine and the sentences are to run concurrently. Chief Inspector Mballow appeared for the IGP.