BY MICHAEL ARNOLD
A THIRTY-two-year-old mother of four has now been sentenced to three years imprisonment after she was found guilty of obtaining a total of K39,000 from four different victims under false pretenses.
During her sentencing hearing yesterday, the court heard that the defendant, Sharon G. Lesi from Malaita in the Solomon Islands had obtained varying amounts of money from all her victims on the underlying premise that she was expecting a substantial rebate from the Internal Revenue Commission and that she would pay them back.
The court heard that the defendant had four children and owned a number of businesses which had gone into bankruptcy. According to the court, the defendant had duped her victims by showing them valueless cheque of K74,000 and a scanned letter from Internal Revenue Commission addressed to the manager of ANZ bank for a cheque payment of K478,314.30 tax refund claim she would be receiving for her company.
In consideration of all aggravating and mitigating factors, Justice Berrigan sentenced the defendant to three years imprisonment at the Bomana correctional facility.
However, she also ordered that two years of her sentence be suspended after the first 12 months of hard labour and under the condition that the defendant signed a contract of good behaviour.