By: Audrey Raymonda John
Olabisi Dalton Pratt, an unemployed man, made another appearance before Magistrate John Manso Fornah of Pademba Road Court No. 2 in Freetown on a single count of larceny, contrary to Section 2 of the Larceny Act of 1916.
According to the particulars of the offence, on Tuesday, 4th November 2025, at Fergusson Lane in the Western Area, Freetown, the accused stole one Samsung A22 Ultra mobile phone valued at eighteen thousand Leones (NLe 18,000), the property of Edward Johnson.
When the charge was read and explained to him, the defendant pleaded guilty.
Prosecutor Detective Police Constable 18235 Thoronka K. K. informed the court that the facts as charged were true and that the defendant had no previous criminal record, making him a first-time offender. He tendered both the caution statement and the charge statement of the defendant, which were admitted into evidence as part of the court record.
The defendant, who had no legal representation, pleaded with the Magistrate to temper justice with mercy.
In delivering his judgment, Magistrate Fornah noted that although the defendant was a first-time offender and did not waste the court’s time, the complainant had been permanently deprived of his property. He therefore sentenced Olabisi Dalton Pratt to eighteen months imprisonment at the Male Correctional Facility in Freetown. The sentence is to be served in full unless the stolen phone is restored to the complainant.