Recovered stolen copper wire gets man stiff sentence
ALEX - Man pleads guilty on charge of theft.
A man who pleaded guilty on a charge of theft of 10 metres of copper wire was sentenced in the Alexandra Magistrates’ Court to a fine of
R10 000 or seven months’ imprisonment with an additional five years wholly suspended for five years.
Acting with two accomplices who escaped from security guards, Loxolo Simayi (33) was arrested on 8 November and found with the copper wire as the trio fled from a construction site at Halfway House, Midrand. Magistrate Renier Boshoff classified the offence under the Essential Infrastructure Act, incorporated in the Criminal Matters Amendment Act No18 of 2015 used to adjudicate on crimes including theft of wire and batteries from cellphone towers, robots and from other essential places servicing the public and business.
Read: Thieving employees sentenced after stealing copper wire from Morningside construction site