Cellphone thief gets 12yrs

2003-05-15 09:28

Johannesburg - An 18-year-old man has been sentenced to 12 years in prison by Tembisa regional court for stealing a cellphone at knifepoint, North Rand police said on Thursday.

Superintendent Eugene Opperman said Lifa Nelson Mbatha was found guilty of threatening a woman with a knife and stealing her cellphone in Hospital View, Tembisa, on December 11 last year. He was sentenced on Wednesday.

Mbatha ran away from the scene but was chased and arrested by an off-duty police officer who witnessed the incident.

The knife and stolen cellphone were found in Mbatha's possession at the time of his arrest.

Regional magistrate HJ le Grange suspended four years of the sentence and Mbatha would serve an effective eight years in jail, Opperman said.

It was the second severe sentence handed down to an armed robber in Tembisa regional court recently.

On May 7 a man who stole his victim's shoes and cap at gunpoint was sentenced to 15 years in jail.

- SAPA