A former employee of the Ministry of Education, Sports and Culture (M.E.S.C), who pleaded guilty to his involvement in a theft case at the Ministry, has been jailed for two years.
Junior Seumanutafa’s sentence was handed down by Justice Vui Clarence Nelson in the Supreme Court on Wednesday afternoon.
Seumanutafa is among several officials from M.E.S.C charged in relation to a break in at one of the offices at M.E.S.C headquarters at Malifa where several laptops and a large amount of cash went missing.
According to information provided before the Court, the stolen items included exercise books, pens and boxes of hard cover books and laptops. The items had a value of NZ$26,000 (T$46,000).
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Of the officials charged – including an Assistant Chief Executive Officer and two Principal Officers – only Seumanutafa pleaded guilty. The rest have rejected the allegations.
Seumanutafa on the other hand, who was represented by lawyer, Diana Roma, pleaded guilty to 17 counts of theft as a servant.
The maximum penalty for theft as a servant is seven years.
In Seumanutafa’s case, the starting point for his sentence was four years. Factors in his favour included his early plea as well as a number of good character references which spoke about his valuable contribution to the community.
The offences were believed to have taken place between the periods of November 2012 to April 2014.
In delivering the sentence, Justice Vui said the defendant had already “apologised” to the Chief Executive Officer of the Ministry, who has accepted the apology.
But for such cases, Justice Vui said an imprisonment term is necessary to teach the offender a lesson as well as to send out the message the Court will not tolerate people who break the law.
Justice Vui said the message should discourage young people from following suit.
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