A 30-year old ex-convict, Valentine Thomas has been sentenced to five years imprisonment for eating food and drinking wine with his two girlfriends at Victoria Crown Palace Hotel in Victoria Island, Lagos, Southwest Nigeria without money.
He was also convicted of stealing a Tecno Canon C9 Phone belonging to a lawyer, Henry Orarotimi.
The convict was jailed by Magistrate B.O. Ope Agbe in charge of Court 12 at the Igbosere Magistrate Court, Lagos after the convict changed his ‘not guilty’ plea and pleaded guilty to the five-count charge preferred against him by the police at the Bar Beach Division, Victoria Island, Lagos and the facts of the matter presented before the court by the police counsel, Cyriacus Osuji.
Osuji had informed the court in charge No: L/3/2018 that the journey to jail started for the convict on 10 January, 2018 when he went to the Victoria Crown Hotel with two girlfriends to eat food with chicken, snail, fish and drank bailey and Hennessy Wines all values at N173, 450.
He told the court that when the hotel workers demanded the payment of the food and drinks from the convict, he told them that he had no money on him because he was jobless and that the hotel workers invited the police to arrest him while his two girlfriends managed to escaped.
The convict pleaded not guilty to the charged and Magistrate Ope Agbe granted him to bail and adjourned the matter for trial.
On the day of trial, the convict suddenly changed his not guilty plea and pleaded guilty to the charge and the facts of the matter presented before the court and Magistrate Ope Agbe subsequently sentenced him to five years of imprisonment without an option of fine with a directive that the sentence should run concurrently
