Gukisuva v Reginam [1978] FJSC 18; Criminal Appeal 004 of 1978 (20 January 1978)

THE SUPREME COURT OF FIJI
APPELLATE JURISDICTION

Criminal Appeal No. 4 of 1978

NAVITALAI GUKISUVA
Appellant

v.

REGINAM
Respondent

JUDGMENT

The appellant was convicted by the Magistrates Court Suva of receiving stolen property contrary to "section 347(1)(a) of the Penal Code and sentenced to 9 months' imprisonment. The conviction was based on his own plea of guilty. He was unrepresented.

He appeals against his conviction on the ground that he did not fully understand the nature of the charge and that on the facts admitted by him he could not have been properly convicted of the offence charged. He is represented by counsel before this Court.

At the trial, when asked if he had anything to say to the Court, the appellant said -

"I learnt the morning after that the goods were stolen. After that sisters advised me to take articles away before Police came."

It is not at all clear what the appellant meant by "the morning after". Did he mean the morning after the theft, or the morning after the receiving? It seems more likely that he meant the latter in which case, a plea of not guilty should have been entered and the case tried in the normal way.

This Court has said several times that where an illiterate unrepresented person pleads guilty to a charge, the trial Court should treat his initial plea as provisional only and defer the final acceptance of the plea until the facts have been fully outlined by the prosecution and admitted by the accused. In this case, the qualified acceptance of the facts by the appellant cannot be treated as an unequivocal plea of guilty.

The appeal is, therefore, allowed and the conviction set aside.

The case is remitted to the Magistrates Court for plea to be taken again and the case dealt with de novo.

(G. Mishra)
JUDGE

Suva,
20th January 1978