Learner on joyride earns suspended sentence
A LEARNER driver was the unwitting chauffeur for an alleged burglar on the run.
Sakiusa Rakadi, 25, did not think twice when he saw keys left in the ignition of a car parked near Murray St at Manoora.
“He took it on himself to take the vehicle – at the time he was a learner driver,” police prosecutor Sergeant Dorothy Bishop told Cairns Magistrates Court.
Rakadi’s passenger was a 26-year-old alleged burglar who had broken into an Edge Hill home in July.
Police intercepted the joyride at 2am and brought it to a halt with the help of spikes.
They found two machetes in the vehicle.
Rakadi, a construction labourer with a two-year-old child, pleaded guilty to possessing a knife in a public place, failing to comply with a learner’s licence, unlawful use of a vehicle, possessing a utensil and possessing a knife
The short-lived late night sojourn through western Cairns was not Rakadi’s first brush with the law.
In 2012, he appeared in court charged with armed robbery for stealing $400 at knifepoint from a Balaclava Rd store. Rakadi was captured after the police dog squad tracked him to bushland behind Barnes St.
Four years later he pinched a mobile phone from a stall attendant at Stockland Shopping Centre in Earlville.
Rakadi was convicted of armed robbery and sentenced to a year’s stay at Lotus Glen Correctional Facility.
“Twelve months in jail did nothing to deter you from offending on this occasion,” Magistrate Joe Pinder said.
He sentenced Rakadi to six months in jail to be suspended over two years.