Duo jailed for seven years for robbing Customs employee

By DAPHNE WANI
TWO men were jailed for seven years for aggravated robbery of a Customs employee in Port Moresby two years ago.
The pair took K22,114 and a Huawei P8 phone from the employee.
Chris Yomba, from Chimbu, and Dominic Ure, from Central, pleaded guilty to aggravated robbery at the Waigani National Court before Justice Panuel Mogish.
Both expressed remorse after their conviction.
The court heard that the accused were armed with factory-made guns and stole from Walter Tako, at Downtown in Port Moresby, on May 5, 2016. Tako was on his way to a bank.
The money was travel allowances for some Customs officers, who were about to travel out of the country, and was never recovered.
The prisoners were in the company of three other suspects when they were caught red-handed in a pursuit by members of the police Dog Unit in NCD.
The three other suspects escaped and police apprehended Ure and Yomba the same day. Both appeared in court from custody.
The judge took into account their guilty plea that was consistent with their confessions to the police and their lack of previous convictions.
However, in his ruling, Justice Mogish said the significance of their guilty plea enabled their cases to be dealt with quickly and with less convenience to the State to round up witnesses.
Justice Mogish said he sympathised with the plight of the families of the prisoners but the blame should be placed squarely on the offenders.
He said robbery was a prevalent offence and called for a strong deterrent sentence.
He deducted two years and a month from the time spent in custody and further suspended 11 months from their original sentence and ordered they be placed on good behavior bond.
Ure and Yomba will serve four years in prison.