A man has avoided jail after asking not to be imprisoned because he was the only one left to look after his younger sisters.
Petelo Toiloto, 20, of Savalalo and Fugalei, was facing drug charges with the rest of his family either already jailed or facing similar charges.
On Monday, he appeared in the Supreme Court before His Honour, Justice Vui Clarence Nelson, for possession of narcotics, namely three packets of marijuana amounting to 4.1 grams. Police said this was an amount that could yield six joints.
His sister, Valerie Baby Chadwick, was also charged in relation to the same incident for possession of a much larger amount of marijuana, equalling 166.8 grams.
According to the summary of facts, this was enough for 230 joints of marijuana.
She was already serving time at Tafaigata, also for another incident of possession of narcotics.
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Her sentence, delivered on 17 December last year, is for two years.
They both pleaded guilty at the earliest opportunity to the charge they were currently before the court for.
This incident occurred on 8 November 2013.
Police were tipped off that the family was selling marijuana from their home. When Police approached the house, Toiloto was sitting on a chair.
Police informed him then that they were there to search the premises in relation to suspicion of drugs, namely marijuana. Chadwick at that time had already thrown her bag out of the window and escaped.
When Police confiscated this bag, they found 192 seeds, 18 branches or 192.1 grams and an assortment of leaves equivalent to 18.79 grams of marijuana. Chadwick and Toilolo were represented in Court by lawyer, Tuala Karanita Enari.
Justice Vui in passing sentence told the Court that Chadwick through her lawyer claims that the drugs did not belong to her. It was her brother’s and that she was holding on to them.
But Justice Vui said there was no evidence before the Court to support her claims.
It was also revealed that the siblings’ mother was already serving time for the possession of narcotics. Further, there is a pending investigation in relation to their father, also accused over similar charges. And that’s not all.
A warrant of arrest has been issued for their other brother, again over drug charges. Lawyer Tuala asked the Court for a noncustodial sentence for Toiloto.
He said that considering the circumstances of the family, he was now the father figure to his two younger sisters, 17 and 12 years old. Justice Vui then sentenced Chadwick to three years in prison to be served cumulatively to the other imprisonment term she is currently serving.
Toiloto on the other hand was ordered to be supervised for 12 months by the Probation office. He was also ordered to serve 100 hours of community services.
The Court ordered the matter to be heard again on 19 May 2014 for the Probation Office to submit a probation report.
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