Man bags 12 months imprisonment for snatching purse

A Karmo Grade 1 Area Court, Abuja, yesterday, sentenced a 22-year-old man to 12 months imprisonment for snatching a purse containing N1,000.

The judge, Mr Abubakar Sadiq, convicted Mohammed as he pleaded guilty to a charge of joint act and theft.

He also ordered that the recovered purse and cell phone be returned to the owner.

The judge advised the convict to be of good behaviour and desist from committing crime after serving his prison term.

Mohammed, who resides at Utako village, Abuja, was charged under sections 79 and 292 of the Penal Code.

Earlier, the prosecutor, Mrs Auhioboh Florence, told the court that one Dim Marian of Mabushi, Abuja, reported the matter at Utako Police Station on August 20.

The prosecutor said that on August 19 at about 8:30pm the convict and one other now at large, conspired and accosted the complainant with a knife.

He said the complainant was trying to board a cab at Nasfat junction by Yoruba Mosque Utako, when the convict attacked her and forcefully snatched her purse containing N1,000 and a cell phone.

Florence said that the complainant raised an alarm which attracted people around and the convict was caught but his accomplice escaped with the purse.

The prosecutor said that during police investigation and interrogation, the purse and cell phone were recovered, but all effort made to recover the N1,000 proved abortive.

She told the court that the convict had criminal records and had been sentenced by the court before. (NAN)