A Dei-Dei Grade I Area Court, Abuja, on Wednesday, sentenced a 22-year-old scavenger, Philip Ola, to nine months imprisonment for stealing cooking gas cylinder.
Ola, of no fixed address, had pleaded guilty to the charges of house breaking and theft and begged for leniency.
The Judge, Saminu Suleiman, however, gave the convict an option of N20,000 fine and warned him to desist from committing crime in future.
Earlier, the Prosecution Counsel, Chinedu Ogada, told the court that the complainant, Benjamin Ikechi, of Anguwan London, Ikwa Zuba, Abuja, reported the matter at Zuba police station on March 25.
Ogada said the convict criminally broke into the complainant’s house and dishonestly stole his cooking gas cylinder, valued at N25,000.
He said that in process of escaping, the complainant caught the convict inside his house and handed him over to the police for investigation.
The prosecution counsel stated that during police interrogation and investigation, the convict confessed to the crime, while the gas cylinder was recovered from him.
According to him, the offences contravene Section 288 of the Penal Code.