Kapofgo v. R. Crim. App. 895-M-70; 7/2/72; Jonathan,

 

Kapofgo v. R. Crim. App. 895-M-70; 7/2/72; Jonathan, 

The appellant a member of the Village Development Committee was convicted by the Primary Court of stealing money contributed by the villagers of Legana for the purpose of building a dam and entrusted to him. The appellant was sentenced to 2 years’ imprisonment and 24 strokes under the Minimum Sentences Act. His appeal to the District Court was dismissed. On appeal to the High Court it was considered whether the fund for the building of a dam was a charity or whether the money belonged to the Village Development Committee and therefore to the District Council so as to decide whether the appellant was properly punished under the Minimum Sentences Act.

            Held: “The charity is defined under the Minimum Sentences Act as ….. any fund or organization for the relief of poverty the advancement of education, the alleviation or prevention of sickness or the mitigation of the consequence of any disaster. …. The building of the dam ….Would have led to an improvement in the living standards of the villagers. That said, however, it is impossible to add with certainty from the facts of the case that the fund was ‘for the relief of poverty’ in that locality.” (2) “Essentially, the villager’s plight was a self-help scheme in which the Council does not appear to have had a hand. The fund, it seems, was to have been used in a manner that suited its contributors and the Council had not control either as to the raising of it or as to its application. In those circumstances, therefore, it could hardly be said that the money belonged to the Council. (3) “In the result, I would hold that the Minimum Sentences Act did not apply”. (4) The order of the strokes set aside.