Kota Kinabalu: A 37-year-old man was jailed seven years and ordered to get a stroke of the cane for robbing a 24-hour outlet of RM1,677.35.
Sessions Court Judge Noor Hafizah Mohd Salim meted out the sentence to M. Sharif Shakhandar Benjamin who changed his plea to guilty during his first day of trial on Wednesday.
M. Shahrif had robbed the Orange Convenient Store in Jalan Laiman Diki, Kg Air at 3.20am on May 18 this year.
The offence under Section 392 of the Penal Code carries a jail term of up to 14 years, and whipping, on conviction.
The court ordered M. Shahrif to serve the jail sentence from the date of his arrest on May 28 this year.
During mitigation, M. Shahrif who was not represented, asked for leniency saying that he has children to look after and that the sentence to be served from the date of his arrest.
However, Deputy Public Prosecutor Najihah Farhana Che Awang urged the court to impose a deterrent sentence on the grounds that the incident caused fear to the worker of the outlet.
She added that the offence was rampant nowadays and that the sentence should be a lesson not only to M. Shahrif but public at large.
The court heard that while the worker was at the outlet, a man entered and pretended that he was buying something.
Suddenly, the man later identified as M. Shahrif, approached the worker, pointed a knife and asked the worker to give all the money to him.
The worker who feared for his safety gave M. Shahrif the money from the drawer.
M. Shahrif was arrested on May 28 and during an identification parade, the worker identified M. Shahrif as the person who robbed the outlet.
