Motorcycle operator jailed for stealing from customer

Kasungu First Grade Magistrate court on Tuesday sentenced a 31 year-old motorcycle operator to 42 months in jail for stealing from a customer.

The convict Andrew Kawiya was jailed after being found guilty of the offence of robbery which is contrary to section 301 of the penal code.

According Kasungu Police deputy spokesperson, Harry Namwaza, on the night of 4 February this year Kawiya who was using motorcycle registration number MZ 5471 picked Liazi Lunguzi aged 20 from Kasungu Municipality to Juma where Lunguzi wanted to find a place to sleep.

“Before reaching Juma the convict stopped at a Total Filling Station where he started making suspicious phone calls,” he explained.

Sensing danger, Lunguzi memorised the motorcycle registration number.

When they approached their destination, the motorcycle operator claimed the motorbike had run out of fuel.

According to Namwaza, as they meditated on what to do a vehicle appeared from which people alighted.

The motorbike operator together with the thugs from the vehicle beat the customer and robbed him of assorted items worth K120,000 before fleeing.

Some people found the victim lying in pain and they rushed with him to Kasungu District Hospital.

The motorbike operator Kawiya was later arrested using the registration number which the victim memorised. In court, Kawiya pleaded guilty and he asked for lenient punishment saying he is a first offender.

But First Grade Magistrate Damiano Banda slapped him with 42 months imprisonment saying that Kawiya’s action could not be condoned and.

Andrew Kawiya comes from Kaning’a village, Traditional Authority Malengachazi in Ntchisi district.