Beni v The State [1998] FJHC 109; Haa0030j.98b (21 July 1998)

Fiji Islands - Beni v The State - Pacific Law Materials

IN THE HIGH COURT OF FIJI

AT LABASA

APPELLATE JURISDICTION

CRIMINAL APPEAL NO. 30 OF 1998

BETWEEN:

:

1. RAFAELE BENI
2. ERONI VUNIROVA
3. LIVAI KIDIDROMO
Appellant

AND:

STATE
Respondent

Appellanellant in n Ms Anuja Sukhdeo for the State

JUDGMENT

On 24 April 1998 in the Magistrate's Court at Labasa before S.M. Shah Esq., the Resident Magistrate, the appts (the three accused persopersons) pleaded guilty to the offence of robbery with violence contrary to section 293(1)(a) of the Penal Code Cap. 17.

The appellants received three years' imprisonment each and they are appealing against severity of sentence.

At the hearing of the appeal each appellant handed in to Court his written submission. They are all young offenders aged 19 years, 20 years and 19 years respectively. They all ask for forgiveness and a reduction in sentence which they say is excessive.

The learned State counsel opposed the appeal and submitted that the offence is serious and that the custodial sentence was warranted. She supported the sentence on each appellant stating that it was not excessive in the circumstances.

One has to consider the appeal in the light of the facts of this case. The victim is the van driver employed by Tim Lee Bakery in Savusavu. When he was returning from delivering bread at 11.15 a.m. at Wainigate "he saw that road had been blocked. A big branch of a big tree had been put across the road. Without removing the branch, no traffic could pass. The victim saw the first accused near the branch. As soon as the victim stopped his motor vehicle, the first accused ran away into the bush ..... The second and third accused came to the motor vehicle near the road block. These two accused were dressed army style with leaves on their heads. Chest upwards they could be mistaken for soldiers. They both attacked the victim. They held two knives on his neck and robbed him of $446.22 cash, 80 packets of butter (¼ lb) and 6 loaves of bread. Total cash and value of goods taken is $518.00". There was a small cut on the victim and it was also swollen.

This indeed was a very serious offence committed by young offenders. The facts reveal a depressingly familiar picture of unwarranted and unprovoked act and loutish behaviour on the part of the appellants attacking an innocent man in a public place. The only thing in their favour is that they had all pleaded guilty and that the injury was very minor.

The custodial sentence was right in principle and indeed inevitable. The appellants are equally liable under sections 21 and 22 of the Penal Code but for the part the first appellant played I shall deal with him slightly differently from the other two as far as sentence is concerned.

The Magistrate in his sentencing remarks rightly commented on the need for custodial sentence despite the youth of the offenders. This was a nasty offence but it was not the worst of its kind but has to be emphasised that offences of this kind had a serious public dimension and despite the mitigating factors that there are, there remained a need to deter and make plain that this kind of offence called for serious punishment.

Bearing in mind that the appellants pleaded guilty and that this robbery fell at the lower end of the scale, I think it is a proper case in which I ought to reduce the sentence to some extent. I order that the sentence that the Magistrate imposed be quashed and that a sentence of 2 years' imprisonment on the first appellant and two and a half years' imprisonment on the second and third appellants be substituted. To that extent the appeals succeed.

D. Pathik
JUDGE

At Labasa
21 July 1998

Haa0030j.98b