Alieu Faye, former accountant with Stop Step company, was on yesterday handed a custodial sentence of three years imprisonment by Principal Magistrate Moses Richards of the Kanifing Magistrates’ Court. Mr. Faye’s sentence follows his being found guilty of stealing D547,547 as a clerk or servant on 2nd May, 2007. Magistrate Richards also ordered the accused to pay D350, 000 to his employer or to serve another two years, both sentences to run concurrently.

In his ruling earlier on, Magistrate Richards told the court that the accused was a mature and dishonest person.
He stated that the prosecution had proved their case beyond reasonable doubt and that the accused was convicted of the offence.

In his plea for mitigation, Lawyer Antouman Gaye, the defence counsel, drew attention to the accused’s age and said that he was a married man. He therefore urged the court not to give him a custodial sentence, noting that the accused was a first offender whose family would be miserable without him.

Principal Magistrate Moses Richards finally sentenced the accused to three years imprisonment without an option of a fine.