Court discharges office break-in suspects over wording of charge

LAE District Court yesterday discharged two men charged with breaking, entering and stealing more than K4,000 worth of office equipment after the court found defects in the wording of the charge.
This came after Magistrate Pious Tapil, in a previous hearing, told the arresting officer to amend the court files or the charges would be dropped.
Magistrate Tapil said enough time had been given for the amendments to be made to the wording of the charge.
However, the arresting officer failed to comply with the directions.
He told the accused Steven John, 25, from Papaiyo village, Kikori, Gulf, and Graham Bobby 27, of Kore village, Sinasina-Yongamugl, Chimbu, that the delay had resulted in their charge being thrown out.
“This does not mean that you are done,” Magistrate Tapil told the defendants.
“If police are able to come up with proper information in the future, they can rearrest both of you.”
Police files presented in court stated that on May 7, between 1am and 2am, on Maghdui St in Lae, Morobe, the defendants allegedly entered Homestate Ltd’s main office and held up three guards at gun-point.
The court was told that the defendants and two other accomplices tied the guards up and stole smartphones from the guards worth K2,500.
They then broke into the main office and took two more phones and prepaid top-up cards, two rechargeable torches, a flash drive and a small safe. The total value of items stolen was K4,459.90.