A man has been sentenced to prison after being found guilty of damaging property in his mother's residence out of anger over lacking money to obtain drugs, as well as stealing items from the former Criminal Court building.
The court delivered its verdict in this case against Adam Hannad, Asaru, Sh. Maaungoodhoo.
According to the Criminal Court's verdict, on the night of August 16 last year, he smashed the lid of a large plastic drum in the kitchen of M. Maakaraage, broke several eating plates, and inflicted major damage to the door of his mother's living room by striking it with a pair of scissors.
Speaking at the trial, Hannad stated that he committed the act out of sudden anger arising from not having money for drugs and being unable to obtain drugs.
As he confessed to the crime at the preliminary hearing of the case, the proceedings were conducted under expedited sentencing. The verdict delivered by Criminal Court Judge Ali Naseem in this case stated that:
- He was found guilty of the crime of property damage, and a prison sentence of two months and 12 days was imposed. However, after deducting the period spent in custody, the prison punishment that needs to be served is 23 days.
- He was instructed to pay MVR 2,238 to the Civil Court as compensation for the damage.
In addition, Hannad was also sentenced over the crime of exercising unauthorized control over another person's property. This is a case where, on the morning of July 5 of this year, while carrying away two HP brand all-in-one desktop computers and two voice recorders stolen from inside the former Criminal Court building located on Haveeree Hingun, he was intercepted and searched by police upon being spotted on the street.
At the trial, he stated that since a younger sibling had mentioned they would provide money if a desktop was procured, he entered that building with a friend and took the items with the intention of obtaining money for drugs.
In the verdict delivered by Judge Ali Naseem in this case:
- He was found guilty of the crime of exercising unauthorized control over another person's property, carrying a prison punishment of nine months and 18 days.
- After deducting 16 days spent in custody during the investigation stage, the punishment that needs to be served is a sentence of nine months and two days.
- Although Hannad requested to have his punishment converted to a fine, the court decided that the punishment could not be converted to a fine due to his lack of financial capacity to pay a fine and his possession of multiple theft records.
