Suburban
A Harare man who recently benefited from the Presidential clemency is back behind bars after being sentenced to an effective one-year jail term for stealing blankets, an inverter and phones from a house in Borrowdale, Harare.
Brian James (23) was convicted of unlawful entry charges on his own plea of guilty by Harare magistrate Mrs Ethel Rutendo Chichera.
Initially, Mrs Chichera sentenced the unrepetant James to 15 months in jail but suspended three months on condition of good behaviour.
The State proved that on May 21 at around 10.45am, Ms Amanda Nkobwe left home going to church, leaving all windows closed and doors locked. Ms Nkobwe left the keys on the lower part of the roof, where she usually left them, just in case her house-mates returned home earlier.
James confirmed to the court that he used the keys to unlock the doors after seeing Ms Nkobwe placing them on the roof.
As soon as Ms Nkobwe had left for church James went to the house and took the keys from the roof, unlocked the door and entered the house. He then stole a Huawei cellphone, an Itel cellphone, an inverter and two blankets.
James then went away, leaving the door locked.
Around 6pm on the same day, Ms Nkobwe returned home, only to discover that her belongings had been stolen.
She went to ZRP Borrowdale and filed a report leading to the arrest of James.
The value of the stolen property was US$230 and everything was recovered. — The Herald.
