KUCHING: Stealing a Samsung Galaxy SIII phone charger at a cafe near Jalan Petanak here last week landed an unemployed man six months behind bars yesterday.
Magistrate Maris Agan imposed the jail sentence on Hafiz Azizi Azmi, 23, from Petra Jaya, after he pleaded guilty to the offence when the case appeared for mention.
Azizi admitted that he had broken into the shop at about 1.30am on Nov 6 and committed the theft.
The cafe owner, known as Lee, said the theft was discovered when he went to open the cafe at about 6.30am that day.
He said there were signs of forced entry on the door. Upon checking his shop, he realised that one unit of Samsung Galaxy SIII battery charger worth about RM100, and placed inside a cabinet, was missing.
Hours after lodging a police report, the cops spotted three suspicious individuals inside a Perodua Kancil parked not far from the cafe.
They managed to detain one of them while the other two, including Hafiz, fled. However, Hafiz surrendered himself later, and told the police that he had committed the crime alone.
In mitigation, Hafiz, who appeared calm when the decision was handed down, said he was remorseful and pleaded for a lenient sentence. But prosecution officer Inspector Yunus Sahak called for a hefty sentence to be imposed as a lesson to the offender as well as to send a strong message to potential offenders that such offences would not be taken lightly by the authority as it was becoming rampant nowadays.
Housebreaking comes under Section 457 of the Penal Code which provides for a five-year imprisonment and is liable to a fine.