FORMER HEADTEACHER SENTENCED TO 7 YEARS IMPRISONMENT FOR STEALING SHS 8.3MILLION

Police officer escorts the convict Swaib Goodyear out of the courtroom after passing the judgement on Wednesday. PHOTO BY ROBERT ELEMA 
 
BY ROBERT ELEMA 

YUMBE
The Chief Magistrate court in Yumbe has sentenced a former head teacher of Dradranga Primary School in Kululu Sub County Yumbe district for 7 years imprisonment.
 
Court found the head teacher Mr. Swaib Goodyear guilty and consequently convicted him on two counts of forgery and theft.
 
Court on Wednesday heard that, the convict cut stamps and forged letter of transfer from Dradranga Primary School to Gichara Primary School as the head teacher.
 
The Presiding Chief Magistrate, Freddie Awacnedi said, the convict purportedly used the forged transfer letter to go and change the signatories in the Bank account of Gichara Primary School claiming, he was the head teacher of the school in Stanbic Bank Moyo Branch but they didn't detect the fraud/forgery in the change of the signature by the convict," he said.
 
He said, following the successful change of the signatories in the bank, the convict withdrew money from Gichara Primary School bank account amounting to Shs 8.3million.
 
The magistrate said, the bank realized this fraud when the convict again attempted to change another signatory for another school with the aim of defrauding the second school.
 
"The genuine head teacher of Gichara Primary School then went to withdraw money from the school bank account but realized, there was no money in the account and when investigations were done, the convict was consequently arrested and prosecuted in court. The facts were proved by the court and found that, he truly forged transfer letter from Dradranga to Gichara Primary School and used the letter to steal the money," the magistrate added.
 
He said, ideally, it's the District Education Officer (DEO) who recommends the staff under Education department for transfer and it's the office of the Chief Administrative Officer (CAO) to effect the transfer which was contrary in the forged letter so, court found him guilty on two counts of forgery and theft of money that led to his conviction.
 
Mitigation 
 
In his mitigation, Mr Swaib Goodyear asked court to be lenient to him on grounds that he has dependents.
 
"I would like the court to be merciful to me and give me a lenient punishment because of my advanced age and that I have children who depend on me in terms of school fees and other basic needs including my old parents who also rely on me," he said.
 
Courts decision 
 
The Chief Magistrate said, the case dragged for long and the convict wasted courts time.
 
"The authority in Yumbe had a lot of trust in you (the convict) but he was found to be a criminal minded civil servant who beat the security system in the area and caused a big financial gap in Gichara Primary School. The money was meant to facilitate teaching and learning process in that school but you decided to take a dangerous direction not minding that you have responsibilities at home," he said.
 
In his judgement, the magistrate then sentenced the convict to 2 years imprisonment for forgery and 5 years for theft of money which will run co-currently and he was ordered to refund the Shs 8.3million he had stolen from the school account.
 
The convict committed the offence in 2021 and hearing of the case commenced in 2022.
 
 
 
 

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