The Kanifing Magistrates’ Court has handed down a nine-month jail term to Doudou Kanteh after he entered a plea of guilty for obtaining money by false pretences.

The court also slammed another two-month jail term on him for escaping whilst being held under lawful custody.
According to the facts of the case as adduced in court, the convict, Doudou Kanteh, had earlier this year obtained 150 Gamcel scratch cards from a certain shop-keeper on promise to pay him D15,000 but failed to do so.

Meanwhile before the judgement was passed, Kanteh passionately appealed to the presiding magistrate to show him grace and spare him from the long arm of the law. He told the court that he was a married man with four kids and had ‘sincerely’ regretted his action.

However, magistrate Abdoulie Mbackeh, presiding, said taking into consideration some of the mitigating factors that the convict had highlighted in his plea, the court would show him a degree of clemency but that he couldn’t go scot-free. Punishment, said Magistrate Mbackeh, must be meted out to Kanteh as a deterrent to others. He drew his attention to the dignity of labour and the need for positive behavioral transformation.