Police v Solofa [2015] WSSC 261 (24 June 2015)

SUPREME COURT OF SAMOA
Police v Solofa and ors [2015] WSSC 261

Case name:	Police v Solofa and ors
Citation:	[2015] WSSC 261
Decision date:	24 June 2015
Parties:	Police (prosecution) v Maselusi Solofa, Alesana Eliu, Matini Iosua and Kiliona Laulu, males of Falefa
Hearing date(s):
File number(s):	S1513/15 and S1514/15
Jurisdiction:	Criminal
Place of delivery:	Supreme Court of Samoa, Mulinuu
Judge(s):	Justice Ema Aitken
On appeal from:
Order:	Matini Iosua and Kiliona Laulu You are both now convicted on both charges and sentenced to nine months of supervision, which will include 40 hours community work Alesana Eliu You are convicted and sentenced to 12 months of supervision on two conditions: You will complete 80 hours of community work. You will complete the Probation Rehabilitative Program, which includes a session on the abuse of alcohol. Maselusi Solofa You are now convicted on both charges and sentenced to serve eight months of imprisonment, time served can be deducted from that amount.
Representation:	F Lagaaia for the prosecution Defendants appear in person
Catchwords:	Burglary - theft
Words and phrases:	Breach of trust
Legislation cited:
Cases cited:
Summary of decision:

THE SUPREME COURT OF SAMOA

HELD AT MULINUU

BETWEEN:

P O L I C E
Prosecution

AND:

Maselusi Solofa, male of Letogo, Sataoa and Falefa, Alesana Eliu, male of Falefa, Matini Iosua, male of Falefa and Kiliona Laulu, male of Falefa and Faleu Manono.
Defendants

Counsel: F Lagaaia for the Prosecution

Defendants appear in Person

Sentence: 24 June 2015

Oral Sentence of Justice E M Aitken

1. The four of you appear for sentence, having pleaded guilty to a charge of burglary and a charge of theft. Burglary carries a maximum penalty of 10 years, so is the more serious of two offences.
2. Back in April, VT construction was doing some work in the village of Falefa and installed some of the equipment to do that work at the mayor’s house. Alesana and Solofa, you were both working for that company at the time and Solofa you are also a member of the family of the village mayor. It seems Solofa, you and Matini started drinking on the Friday afternoon at around 4.00 pm, and during the course of the evening, you met up with Alesana and Kiliona. All of you continued to drink for several hours and during the course of this drinking session, a discussion was had about whether there might be anything worth stealing in the mayor’s house.
3. You made your way to the mayor’s house, and Solofa, you seemed to have taken a bit of the lead at this point because you removed planks on the windows and entered the house. You picked up the generator (which the victim company had stored there) and you passed it outside to Alesana. You, Matini, and Kiliona were keeping watch to make sure that nobody interfered and once the generator was out of the house, Alesana, you went and found a lift into town and all of you took the generator into town on the back of a truck. You sold it for $500, it is actually worth about $5000, but of the $500 you split the money between the four of you. A short time later, all of you were arrested (apart from Kiliona), spoken to by the Police and admitted your role in the offending and Kiliona you were arrested about a week later.
4. What I see when I look at the four of you in the dock is alcohol. The four of you had been drinking for many many hours before you hatched this plan and it seems to me highly like had you not be so affected by alcohol you would not have committed the offence. Certainly that is likely for three of you, with perhaps the exception of you Solofa as you have previous convictions for dishonest behaviour.
5. Theft and burglary are amongst the most common offences here in Samoa. They are serious offences and this is more serious because Solofa and Alesana, you breached the trust effectively that your employer had placed in you. In his statement, the project manager Mr Teo talks about how he feels offended and hurt by that breach of trust, and of course until he knew who had done it, he started to question the loyalty of all the other employees; your behaviour has had impact on them as well. Matini and Alesana’s family had been to apologise at the time he written the statement but at that stage there have been no apology from Kiliona or Solofa.
6. It is important to remind myself of course that the generator has been returned. I turn now to deal with each of you in turn

Matini Iosua and Kiliona Laulu

7. Matini and Kiliona, you two are less culpable or in other words less blameworthy than the other two because you were not working for the company and did not know anything about where the generator was stored. Matini, you are 23 years’ old and you are a first offender, in other words, you have never appeared before the Court before and you were working at the time of this offending. You have good family support and you have expressed your remorse both to the probation officer, to the victim and to this Court. I am satisfied that this is what I can call out of character offending in other words, offending that does not really describe who you are but rather a young man acting under the influence of alcohol.
8. I understand that you or your family, on your behalf, has paid the village punishment of $200 and that is not a small amount. If I am to accept what you told me in Court it seems that you have learnt from your behaviour and you clearly realize the impact of your offending on your family. You have also spent
two months in custody and you asked me for a chance at this stage.
9. Kiliona, you are 24 years’ old. You left school quite young but you were recently in paid employment before you lost your job as a result of this offending. You too are remorseful, you have apologised and the victim has forgiven you for your offending. I regard you behaviour also as out of character and clearly driven or influenced by the amount of alcohol you had consumed that night.
10. Kiliona and Matini, both of you know now what to expect if you were to continue to offend because if you were to re-offend after today, imprisonment is inevitable. You say you are truly sorry and I will give you a chance to demonstrate that by your actions.
11. Because you have spent time in custody, you are both now convicted on both charges and sentenced to nine months of supervision, which will include
40 hours’ community work. In other words, you will avoid prison on this case but you must see it as both a first and a last chance.

Alesana Eliu

12. You are more culpable in other words more blameworthy because, of course, you worked for the company and you had an active role in finding the truck that took you all and the generator into town for the generator to be sold, and because of that increased blameworthiness, I have to think seriously of whether you must be sentenced now to a term of imprisonment.
13. You are 27 years’ old and you have a partner and four children who depend on you. You have a good employment history. You were working obviously for the company and clearly have lost that job because of your behaviour. You have no previous convictions at all. You have apologized to the victim and that apology has been accepted and you have paid the village penalty of $200. I can hear from what you say to me in Court that you have clearly thought about time in prison over the last two months you have been there.
14. Because of your age, and the fact that you have no previous convictions but a good employment history, again I am persuaded that this was out of character offending. I doubt you would be standing there if you were not under the influence of alcohol that time. Because of your prior good history and the nature of this offending, because you have now spent two months in custody, I will give you a first and a last chance today, really to put your children first.
15. You are convicted and sentenced to 12 months of supervision on two conditions:

1. You will complete 80 hours of community work.
2. You will complete the Probation Rehabilitative Program, which includes a session on the abuse of alcohol.

16. If you truly learnt your lesson you will not appear back before the Criminal Courts again. If you have not, we will see you again and you can expect to go to prison.

Maselusi Solofa

17. You of course are as culpable as Alesana because you were working for the company and you knew where the generator was stored. You also have prior conviction for dishonesty and a term of imprisonment is regrettably the only response to your behavior on this occasion.
18. In terms of fixing the starting point of that sentence, this was of course a burglary of a dwelling house by night and involved a breach of trust. The minimum starting point for a night time burglary of a dwelling house particularly where there was a breach of trust involved is in my view a sentence of 12 months’ imprisonment. From that 12 months, I asked myself whether I should add to that penalty because of your prior convictions for theft and burglary. In the circumstances, I will not. It is only because of those prior convictions that a sentence of imprisonment is inevitable.
19. In terms of your personal circumstances, you are only 22 years’ old, you have been working since you left school so you have clearly got the ability to both get work and keep work. You were not part of the village fine as you are not a member of the village and as best as I can tell from these documents, there has been no real apology from you or your parents to the victim. So, there are no matters that permit me to reduce the sentence except for your plea of guilty. I will give you maximum credit for that which will be a period of four months and that means that you are now convicted on both charges and sentenced to serve eight months of imprisonment, time served can be deducted from that amount.

_____________________

JUSTICE E M AITKEN