Court sets accused free

THE National Court in Lae has set a former employee of JKT Lim company free after a brief trial yesterday when the court found no substantial evidence to prosecute him.
Ruben Micah, 33, from Manus province appeared on trial before resident judge Justice George Manuhu with two charges of stealing.
The court found that he had no case to answer after only one witness appeared to give evidence.
Of the first charge, the court heard that Micah had worked as a sales manager was alleged to have stolen 60 cartons of Mama’s Choice cooking oil worth K2,310 from the company on April 1, 2005.
The second charge alleged that he stole 300 cartons of Mama’s Choice cooking oil and over 20 shopping bags worth K30,175 on May 26, 2005.
The court heard that the accused in his capacity as sales manager supervising the distribution and delivery of these items to a retailer in Goroka on the alleged dates over supplied the client and therefore intended to steal.
Witness Sam Kawe appeared to give evidence but failed to produce invoices of the transactions when asked by Micah’s lawyer Seth Daniels.
The witness told the court that he did not know that these goods were being oversupplied.
Mr Daniels argued that it was only an oversupply of goods on these alleged periods and it was only proper that these goods were returned to the company.