Judgement awaits Kharafi employee

Principal Magistrate Pa Harry Jammeh of the Brikama Magistrates Court is expected to deliver his sentence on one Adama Fatty, after he was found guilty of stealing 920 litres of gas oil from Kharafi Company at the Banjul International Airport. The judgement day is set for September 23, later this month.

 The police prosecutor, Cpl Camara, had told the court that the convict had been nabbed on August 2, this year, at the Yundum Police Station, while he  was on board a car coming from Yundum and going towards Serrekunda. He told the court that when the car arrived at the check point of the Yundum Police Station, one Cpl 1627 Bojang stopped it and told the driver that he would like to conduct a search on the car.  

"During the search, the said gas oil was discovered in the boot of the car," Camara said. He added that when the driver of the car was asked who owned the said gas oil, the convict quickly responded that he was the owner, saying that he had gotten it from his working place at the airport. "He was then asked to come down from the car and it was later confirmed that the convict had stolen the said gas oil," he concluded.

In his mitigation plea, the convict begged the court to have mercy on him, noting the fact that he was a family man with big responsibilities. "Passing a custodial sentence on me will have a negative impact on my family," he appealed.

Presiding Magistrate Jammeh then put it to the convict that Kharafi was a company that was working for the development of the country, and that he was working for the company on a salary, saying that if he should steal from there, how did he expect the country to move forward. "I have heard all your mitigation [pleas], but I must give you a punishment," he told the convict.