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Vueti v Reginam [1977] FJSC 97; Criminal Appeal 135 of 1977 (2 December 1977)

IN THE SUPREME COURT OF FIJI
APPELLATE JURISDICTION

Criminal Appeal No. 135 of 1977

Between:

JOVILISI VUETI alias
JOSSE

and

REGINAM

JUDGMENT

On the 17th October at Nausori Magistrates Court the appellant was convicted on his own plea of robbery with violence contrary to section 326(1)(b) of the Penal Code and was sentenced to two years' imprisonment and to undergo six strokes of corporal punishment, the latter being subject to confirmation by the Supreme Court.

The appellant has appealed against sentence being too severe. It is not. It is too lenient.

On the night of the 8th October 1977 the appellant waited for a bus at Mokani Village, and upon the bus stopping for him he entered the bus and immediately punched the driver on the face, snatched the box containing the fares collected, and made off. The appellant was traced by the police and the money recovered from where he had buried it.

This was a premeditated offence, and not the first occasion on which the appellant has behaved in this way. On the 29th January 1977, at the same time and place, and when the bus was being driven by the same driver, the appellant who was a passenger on the bus grabbed the money box and ran off with it. On that occasion he was charged with and convicted of larceny end sentenced to nine months' imprisonment. He appealed to this Court against that sentence and his appeal was dismissed. Clearly he has not learned his lesson, as only two months after having been released from prison he commits this aggravated offence.

The appellant asked to be excused on the grounds that he was under the influence of liquor, but as I have emphasised, time and again, drunkenness is not mitigation.

This is the second appeal today involving robbery with violence and as I pointed out in the earlier case there is no justification for lighter sentences.

The term of two years' imprisonment is hereby increased to three years' imprisonment with effect from the 17th October 1977, and the corporal punishment of six strokes is confirmed.

Grant, C.J.
Chief Justice

Suva,
2nd December 1977