A 29-year-old teacher of Lusaka’s Kabanana compound has been slapped with a three-months imprisonment with hard labour suspended sentence for stealing a bag of charcoal valued at K55.

In this matter, Lucas Njobvu was accused of stealing charcoal from Joseph Daka.

According to facts which were read in court on Tuesday, the incident happened around 04:00 hours on October 31, 2017 when the complainant heard some noise from the place where he kept his stack of charcoal.

When Daka woke up to check what was going on, he caught Njobvu with a bag of charcoal on his shoulders.

Njobvu bolted but he was apprehended after Daka called for help.

Njobvu readily admitted to the charge and told the court that he had no right to claim ownership of the bag of charcoal.

He said he got the said charcoal for use at his home as he did not have money to purchase it.

The convict said he had no lawful justification for stealing a bag of charcoal.

In passing the sentence, magistrate Austin Mubita gave Njobvu a three-months suspended sentence on has condition that the convict engages in community service at the court complex for seven days.

Magistrate Mubita said despite the convict being a first offender, his action had brought the teaching fraternity into disrepute hence the decision to punish him to deter would be offenders.