Crime

Theft and Aggravated Burglary top last month’s criminal offence

April 2, 2019 12:45 pm

41 Fijians were charged with 57 counts of separate incidents last month, out of which, nine were charged for aggravated burglary and another nine charged for theft.

This has been confirmed by the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutors serious crime statistics for March.

Cash and assorted items ranging from $338 to $12,000 were stolen during the alleged aggravated robbery and aggravated burglary offences consisting of home invasions, shops and restaurant break-ins.

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There were three incidents where foreign nationals were allegedly robbed.

In one incident, a 48-year-old American woman was allegedly robbed of an iPad and 2 mobile phones by a 24-year-old man.

In another incident, two 19-year-olds and one 23-year-old man allegedly broke into a 46-year-old Chinese man’s restaurant and allegedly stole assorted items while a 36-year-old man was charged for allegedly robbing a 34-year-old Filipino man.

However, all three matters were withdrawn due to lack of sufficient identification evidence, police witnesses failing to attend court and losing contact with the complainant after he returned to his country.

Ten cases were withdrawn after discontinuances (Nolle Prosequi) were filed.

These cases were withdrawn due to lack of sufficient identification evidence, police witnesses failing to attend court, the death of principal witnesses and insufficient evidence.

Meanwhile, of the 41 accused persons, three were juveniles and one was a police officer.

The juveniles were charged with aggravated robbery, aggravated burglary and theft offences while the police officer was charged with assault causing actual bodily harm to his wife who is also a police officer.

There were 33 victims of the 57 counts of separate incidents.

There were eight incidents where the accused and victims were related to one another.