Man gets 5 years for burglary

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Mangochi

The Nanyumbu Second Grade Magistrate Court in Machinga has sentenced a 25-year-old man to five years in jail for stealing from a teacher’s house.

The man Wotchi Chirambo was found guilty of burglary and theft contrary to sections 309 (A) and 278 of penal code respectively

According to Machinga police publicist Constable Davie Sulumba, State Prosecutor Constable Gift Kalamula of Nselema police told the court that at 7pm on February 4 this year Chirambo broke into the house of James Mtumodzi who is a teacher.

The criminal went away with one Sahara laptop, two Samsung cellphones, one LG home theatre and a DVD player all valued at K390,000.

At the time of the theft the teacher had gone to a restaurant to buy some food.

When coming back he was surprised to find his house’s front door wide open and when he entered into the house he found some property missing.

The victim went to Nselema Police the same night and reported the matter.

Kalamula further told the court that on 24 October the complainant came across Wotchi Chirambo using the stolen laptop and he notified the police on this.

Chirambo was arrested the same day and the laptop was recovered from him. When taken to police and interviewed on the matter Chirambo failed to explain where he got the laptop as he kept changing statements in his explanations.

Search was conducted at the suspect’s house where the home theatre and the DVD player were recovered.

Chirambo then revealed to police where he sold one Samsung cellphone at K13,000. The phone was later recovered.

When taken before court, Chirambo denied charges of theft and burglary but was found guilty after Kalamula paraded four witnesses.

Kalamula then asked the court to give a stiff punishment to the convict since cases of this nature are on the rise in the area and the only way to reduce them is by giving punishments that would serve as a warning to would be offenders.

Second Grade Magistrate Maxwell Boazi then sentenced the convict to 60 months and 20 months imprisonments with hard labour for burglary and theft respectively but said both sentences will run concurrently.

Wotchi Chirambo hails from Mkapa village, Traditional Authority Nyambi in Machinga District.