Fake bar robbery backfires

A PLAN to fake a robbery at a bar in Windhoek’s Havana area backfired badly on two women in the Windhoek Magistrate’s Court in Katutura this week.

Their attempt to fake a robbery in an effort to earn themselves a couple of quick bucks instead earned Anna Kaleinasho Haukongo (29) and Taimi Etuna Kanime (30) prison terms of four years and three years respectively on Monday.Haukongo and Kanime were sentenced after they pleaded guilty to the charges against them upon their first appearance in court following their arrest.Each of them was charged with a count of theft, while Haukongo was also charged with contravening the Justices of the Peace and Commissioners of Oath Act by making a false statement to the Police.Haukongo pleaded guilty to both charges that she faced. Kanime pleaded guilty to the charge of theft on which she was in the dock.Two men who were charged with them with a count of theft, Tomas Uupindi Magadhi (33) and Efraim Mika Shiimi (31), denied the charge. Their trial was separated from that of the two women. The four suspects were charged with stealing N$11 136,30 in cash and cellphone recharge vouchers valued at N$3 500 from a bar at Havana on August 30.Haukongo was further accused of having made a false statement to the Police when she declared in a sworn statement made at the Windhoek offices of the Police’s Serious Crime Unit that she had been robbed by two men earlier that day.Explaining her guilty plea on the theft charge to Magistrate Bernhard Tjatjara on Monday, Haukongo said she was employed as a bartender at the bar where the fake robbery was staged.’I wanted money desperately, that is why I got the evil idea to do what I did,’ Haukongo told the Magistrate.She said she asked Kanime to find people who could be sent to steal money from the bar. Kanime at first refused to take part in the plan, but she later agreed and found Magadhi and Shiimi to do the job.The two men first came to the bar to have a look at the place, and then returned in the evening, Haukongo said. She related that she slept at the bar and when the two men came there during the night she opened the door for them. She gave them N$4 600, and they then helped themselves to more money that was at the bar, Haukongo said.They also took some bottles of booze and recharge vouchers, she said.Kanime also told the Magistrate that she was asked by Haukongo to find people who could steal money from the bar.She accompanied the two men when they went to the bar between 02h00 and 03h00 on August 30, Kanime said. She said she waited in a car some distance away from the bar as the two men went inside.After leaving the bar, they went to a place where they counted the money and divided it amongst themselves, Kanime said.The share that she received was N$1 600, she said. She used the money to buy food and also bought clothes for her child, who is almost three years old and living with Kanime’s grandmother in northern Namibia, Kanime said.Haukongo told the Magistrate that she wanted money ‘to use it for school fees and to help myself’.She said she has two children, aged 12 and six, who are living with their grandmother in the north of the country.She also received N$1 600 from the scheme, Haukongo said.Magistrate Tjatjara told Kanime and Haukongo with their sentencing that the total value of the loss suffered by the bar owner who had been Haukongo’s employer was a substantial amount of N$14 636,30.Greed would never be accepted as an excuse for any crime, he said.Employers are entitled to expect loyalty from their employees, the Magistrate told them.He added: ‘A strong message should be driven home to honest people to continue being honest and that society cannot tolerate dishonesty. Therefore the sentence of this court should underscore the value placed by the community on integrity and self-control in the workplace and business dealings.’The Magistrate sentenced Kanime to three years’ imprisonment on the theft charge. Remarking that Haukongo had been the mastermind behind the crime and that she had betrayed the trust her employer had placed in her, he sentenced her to a four-year jail term on the theft charge. Haukongo was further sentenced to six months’ imprisonment for making a false statement to the Police, with this sentence ordered to be served concurrently with the four-year sentence.Public Prosecutor Salomé Bampton conducted the prosecution. Kanime and Haukongo stood trial without legal representation.