‘Ana Katokalala Siale (38) who is currently serving time in Hu'atolitoli Prison was sentenced to serve an additional six-months imprisonment for the housebreaking and theft of $10,650 pa'anga worth of Tongan handicrafts in 2020.

She is currently serving two-years six-months imprisonment for two previous convictions of similar offences.

Hon. Mr Justice Niu sentenced her on November 26, at the Nuku'alofa Supreme Court.

She pleaded guilty to the two offences committed during broad daylight on 3 June 2020 when she broke into the house of Vaka 'Aho and stole the Tongan handicrafts.

The judge said no one was at home and the accused took the items and used some of them as security and borrowed money from a money lender business at Vaini and used the rest the same way for a loan from a money lending business in Puke.

On August 2020, police executed search warrants on those two businesses and recovered the items from them. On August 7, the accused was arrested and she admitted that she had broken in and stolen the items and given them to those businesses as security for the loans she took from them.

She has previous convictions 
dating from 2004 to 2021 for similar offences of housebreaking and thefts. 

Apart from this offence, the accused is serving two-years and six-months imprisonment for two separate previous convictions of similar offences.

The six-months sentence was ordered by the Appeal Court on October 1 for housebreaking and theft of Tongan handicrafts valued at $14,100 pa'anga, at a home in Nukunuku in 2020.

The two-years was imposed at the Fasi Magistrate's Court on 11 November, for housebreaking and theft of $22,980 pa'anga worth of Tongan artefacts, at homes in different villages on Tongatapu.

“The housebreaking was of the same pattern as that of the 15 June 2020, namely, breaking in whilst nobody was at home during the day finally have to consider whether that sentence of two-years six-months be suspended or partly suspended,” said the judge.

"I am guided by the decision of the Court of Appeal when it ordered the sentence of the offences of 15 June 2020. It ordered that the last two-years be suspended for two-years so that the accused served only the six-months. I do not see why a similar suspension be not applied in the present sentences as well."

He then sentenced her to two-years six-months imprisonment, but suspended the last two-years for two-years, on conditions.

This means the accused will have another six-months to serve, after her current sentence.