Man appears in court for pickpocketing

National

MOUNT Hagen city’s image is being damaged by petty criminals, a magistrate said when sentencing a man to one month imprisonment for pickpocketing.
Mt Hagen district court magistrate Lydia Karre yesterday ordered Joshua Simon to pay K200 court fine or serve a jail term of one month in prison for stealing K50 from a man at the main Madang-Lae bus stop on Monday.
Simon, 28, is from Baisu, Mt Hagen.
The court was told that Simon was at the bus stop when he stole the K50 from the man who was among the crowd and did not notice it. Simon pleaded guilty.
Karre said Mt Hagen’s image was being damaged by such activities and there has to be tough laws to deal with them.
She said that people could not even use mobile phones in public places because they feared petty criminals would grab their phones form them.
“The public bus stops are not safe anymore.”