Written By Cyrus Kimanga 📝
A 22-year-old man broke down in court after being arraigned and charged with shoplifting.
Alvin Linus Chivondo appeared before Milimani chief magistrate Micheni Wendy where he pleaded guilty of stealing from Naivas Supermarket, situated at development house.
The prosecution counsel submitted that Chivondo on April 10, 2022 went to Naivas development house shopping hall posing as a customer.
Mr. Alvin proceeded to pick items from the shelves and placing them in a shopping basket.
He picked 5kg packet of rice, 1/2kg honey, 1/2kg tea leaves, 5 litres of cooking oil and 2kg sugar.
He was intercepted at the exit by the staff Manning the camera room. He was arrested and the said items recovered from him.
In mitigation Chivondo told the court that his family had gone three consecutive days without food.
Further, he lost his hawking job 2 months ago and he has unsuccessfully sought for a job.
He proceeded to say that the conditions at home forced him to save his starving family by stealing from the said hall.
Mr. Alvin unsuccessfully pleaded with the court to pardon his offense stating that he will never go back to crime.
The court ruled that so far it has pardoned four offenders accused of shoplifting from the same shopping hall.
“From yesterday this court has forgiven four offenders from the same shopping hall. Sentence is supposed to serve a deterrence effect. To my opinion potential criminals have found a leeway to steal from the hall. I am therefore going to sentence the convicted person heavily to serve as an example to the rest. I will therefore fine the accused Ksh 100,000. In default, to serve one year in prison,” ruled the court.
