A Tongan teenager with several previous theft convictions has been sent to jail for six months with the last two months being suspended.
She pleaded guilty and said she did not want a pre-sentence report. She requested she be sentenced as soon as possible.
‘Ilaisaane Kolo, 19, went to a fea (“vendor”) at Ma’ofanga and while being there she spotted a handbag, that contained $15,000.
The handbag was left unattended so she stole it.
That same day Kolo used $6,000 of the money to buy a car.
The owner of the hand bag, Roslyn Vaka, immediately announced her hand bag and the amount of money missing on Facebook.
The couple who had sold the defendant the car contacted Vaka and the police became involved and arrested Kolo.
They recovered $5,155 of the stolen money and Kolo admitted stealing it.
Kolo is no stranger to the court.
She has a number of previous convictions, all dealt with in the Magistrate court including an offence of theft in 2020. A further offence of theft in 2021, both led to community penalties being imposed. Also there was a matter of escaping lawful custody.
In October 2022 she was sentenced to nine month’s imprisonment in which the last three months were suspended for one year, for another theft of $500.
For her latest conviction Justice Cooper had suspended part of her imprisonment term on the following conditions:
- not to commit any offence punishable by imprisonment;
- report to Probation within 48 hours of her release, and
- to satisfactorily complete an alcohol awareness course.
“Any breach of those conditions will lead her to be sentenced to the suspended portion of that term. Any breach is reserved to myself”.
