A man serving 10 years of a 14-year jail term for stealing cash and assorted items worth $4329 has been granted leave to appeal his sentence.
Inoke Gadre was charged with two counts of aggravated burglary and two of theft for entering the property of a Mereseini Navela on June 12, 2017.
He also entered the property of the director of United Pacific (Fiji) Ltd, Faraaz Khailil, 29, on July 3, 2015.
“There is no reason or justification found in the sentencing order for the inordinate delay in sentencing the appellant,” Justice Chandana Prematilaka said in his ruling on August 6.
“There is no mention whatsoever that the trial judge had taken into account the delay on the part of the court to deliver a prompt response in the calculations leading to the final sentence.
“On the matter of making the two sentences for aggravated burglary and theft consecutive by the trial judge, section 22 of the Sentencing and Penalties Act allows a judge to impose a sentence longer than proportionate to the gravity of the offence on a habitual offender.
“It is for the full Court to decide whether the ultimate sentence, irrespective of the errors or the methodology applied in the sentencing process, is harsh or excessive (through disproportionate to the offending) in all the circumstances.
“Since sentencing is for more than one offence, the totality principle should also be considered before recording the actual sentence to be served. These are matters that could be considered when the full Court considers an appropriate sentence to be imposed on the appellant.”
