KOTA KINABALU: A vegetable seller will spend the next eight years in prison for robbing a 24-hour convenience store of RM350 while armed with a machete.
Mohd Shaamir Mohd Ibrahim, a 27-year-old father of six, was also ordered by Sessions Court judge Indra Ayub to be given four lashes of the cane after he pleaded guilty to a charge under Section 395/397 of the Penal Code, which carries a maximum jail term of 20 years along with whipping.
He committed the offence at the Orange outlet in Lintas Plaza on October 2 at 6.10am last year with an accomplice, who is still at large.
He took the money from a 19-year-old cashier, Dhorethy Nolede Masang.
The facts of the case stated that the duo had entered the store and hung around before pretending to purchase a canned drink. They then asked Dhorethy to hand to them two packs of cigarettes.
At that juncture, Mohd Shaamir claimed that he left his wallet in the car, and left, while his accomplice waited in the store.
Five minutes later, Mohd Shaamir returned to the store with a 15-cm machete, while his accomplice went around the counter and ordered Dhorethy to open the cash register.
They took the money from both cash registers and escaped.
Six days later, on October 8, Mohd Shaamir was detained by the police, and was later identified by Dhorethy as the robber during an identification parade.
In mitigation, counsel Erveana Ansari, who was acting on a pro-bono basis, stated that her client had to take care of six children, four from the previous marriage, and two from the current marriage.
She added that Mohd Shaamir’s wife, who was present in court, was unemployed, and a full-time housewife, who depended on her husband.
“His mother is not working, and his father does a number of odd jobs, and does not have a stable income.
“Due to the pressure to provide for his family, the offender turned to robbery,” Erveana said, adding that nobody was hurt in the incident.
“Although the hardship of life is not an excuse to commit the offence, having parents, spouse and children to feed and provide for can lead a man to resort to criminal means,” she said.
Erveana also pointed out that detaining her client would further cause more hardship to the family.
She asked the court to consider a minimal sentence for her client as he had pleaded guilty, hence, saving the time of the court. This, she said would be convenient to the other parties – the complainant and witnesses.
Finally, she contested that her client had not been able to make the birth certificate of his youngest child as he had lost his identity card prior to being arrested.
Meanwhile, deputy public prosecutor Aida Fatimah Datuk Abd Jabar told the court that the facts of the case as a whole should be taken into consideration.
“The incident occurred at the workplace of the victim, and this shows that we are not safe to work at this kind of places anymore, while for members of the public it is not safe anymore to do their shopping at this 24-hour store.”
She added that the court should give serious attention to the interest of the public and not be too symphetatic with the accused.
Aida added that Mohd Shaamir should have thought about his family first before committing this offence.
“His counsel even stated that hardship is not an excuse to commit an offence, thus it is the duty of the court to prevent people from committing this kind of offences,” she said.
Aida also highlighted the increasing number of robberies where dangerous weapons were used.
She tendered the victim’s impact statement which stated that Dhorethy was not only afraid but traumatised, and did not want to attend the court hearings, for fear of Mohd Shaamir.
Mohd Shaamir had not been granted bail when he was first detained. He was ordered by Indra to serve his sentence from his date of arrest.
He has been remanded for four months and 16 days as of yesterday.