Man gets three years for shop break-in

BONTE SEEPI
Correspondent | Thursday June 27, 2013 00:00

Goitseone Machipisa who owns Today, Tomorrow Car Wash in Tonota will also be given five strokes on bare back for breaking into a Cash Bazaar Store (CB) outlet in Francistown on March 6, 2011. With another suspect not before court, he is said to have broken into the store using an assortment of tools. The prosecutor, Inspector Semakaleng Mazibani from Central Police Station told court during trial that the accused was found inside the store by the police and G4S guard who responded to a triggered alarm.  When the magistrate asked him why they committed the crime, he responded that they wanted to steal clothes.

'We broke into the shop because we wanted to steal the clothes,' answered Machipisa, who pleaded guilty. A downcast Machipisa shamefacedly murmured that this was not a legal justification to commit the crime when probed further by the magistrate. He was therefore convicted on his own plea of guilty. The car wash owner had other criminal records that were read in court. In 2011, he was convicted on three counts of house break-in and theft. In passing judgement the magistrate said he considered Machipisa's previous record and found that he had taken some time before committing a similar offence.