A 43-year-old man from Matangiake who went into Tonga College grounds carrying an unloaded airgun, after firing it at a bush area to scare students in an incident last year, was fined a total of $1000 by a Supreme Court judge in Nuku'alofa today.

Petueli Mafi Tuita pleaded guilty to two counts of possession of arms without a licence and trespassing with arms in a yard adjacent to a building.

There was third count but it was dismissed after the Crown offered no evidence.

Hon. Mr Justice Laki Niu during sentencing on July 17 allowed the accused full credit for his guilty pleas. 

Armed 

The Court heard that on May 16, 2018 the accused son was driving a truck with workers at the back and they were playing loud music.

The accused was driving another vehicle and following closely behind the truck as both turned off Taufa'ahau Road and travelled west along Loto Road to go home to Matangiake. 


The judge said, some Tonga College students were walking home from school westward along Loto Road and were trying to hitch a ride on vehicles.

He said that maybe 
the students indicated to the accused’s son that they wanted a ride, but he did not stop and that offended one of them - or maybe one was offended by the loud music from the truck his son was driving, so the offended person threw an empty beer bottle, which bounced off the truck and hit the vehicle the accused was driving.

"You stopped your vehicle and alll the students ran off into the nearby bush beside the road. You then got out of your vehicle with the air gun in your hand and fired two shots, with the gun aimed at the bush where the boys had run into.

“You and your counsel explained to me in Court that you had had no bullet or pellet in the gun at all when you fired those two shots or any other shot that day."

The accused said when he pulled the trigger of the gun to fire a shot, the gun made a loud sound like a shot, which was caused by the escaping air that would have propelled a pellet.

“You said the shots were harmless because there were no pellets, but you fired them to scare the students and to make them come back but they did not come back,” said the judge.

Gun at school compound 

The Court was told the accused then drove up to Tonga College, where he went to the yard by the dining hall and questioned students there as to where the offending boys were, while still holding the air gun in his hand. 

The judge said it was clear that the accused did not tell anyone of those students at the roadside or at the hall or any person at the school, that the gun was harmless because it had no pellet or bullet in it.

"You wanted them all to think that the gun was loaded and lethal so that they would tell you what you wanted to know. You must now appreciate how frightening you must have been to the boys by the road and to the boys by the dining hall. They would have been trembling with fear for their life."

The judge said, if the accused had a lawful purpose to enter the school ground, to make inquiry as to the identity of the student who had thrown the empty beer bottle at the vehicles, he certainly destroyed the validity of that lawful purpose, when he had in his hand a gun, which he clearly indicated he would use if his questions were not answered to his satisfaction.

“You became a trespasser and you had no lawful excuse to be there, which is why you have pleaded guilty to that charge as well,” he said.

However, the judge accepted the accused was provoked by the unlawful throwing of the bottle at their vehicles but it was not an excuse for him to break the law.

The accused’s action caused great consternation at the roadside and at the school. It was reported to the police and a search warrant was issued by the Court. Police arrested the accused with the gun on May 18. 

"The provocation however does mitigate the severity of the punishment that would otherwise be applicable to your action," said Justice Niu.

Fined

The judge said throwing an empty beer bottle at a moving vehicle is itself a dangerous act because it could have caused injury to the driver or to a passenger thereon.

“I fully understand why you reacted as you did and did what you did. Your counsel and the Crown Counsel both agree that a fine, rather than imprisonment would be befitting the circumstances of your offences. I agree with them,” he said.


After considering the circumstances of the offences, his guilty pleas, previous good record, the provocation caused by the school children and the less dangerous aspect of air guns compared to ordinary firearms, the judge fined the accused $500 pa'anga each on the two counts.

Both fines are to be paid within one month from today, or in default he will serve three-months imprisonment. 


The judge ordered for the air gun to be forfeited.

Meanwhile, in Tonga the possession of arms without a licence carries a sentence of imprisonment of up to five-years and the trespassing offence also carries a maximum of five-years imprisonment.

They are both serious because of the risk of injury or death, which an arm can cause and even threatens the safety and security of the people if arms are not properly controlled by licensing them as required by the Arms and Ammunitions Act, said the judge.