Results for sentencing

Tevita Matangi (32) is serving four and a half years imprisonment for two charges of causing grievous bodily harm to Mateaki Hafoka (29) and Sikuvea Fifita (26), when he attacked them with a machete during a drunken altercation in Talau, Vava'u in 2023.

Piliote Uasike was sentenced to four years imprisonment for two charges including possession of 3.09 grams of methamphetamine and utensils seized by Police in a vehicle, he was a passenger of in Nuku’alofa. This was his third set of drugs offences in 2024 alone.

Palatoni Laimani (37) is serving six years and six months in prison for possession of 155.90 grams of methamphetamine, seized in a police raid at his home in Hofoa. “It stands to reason that Mr. Laimani was dealing with others more heavily involved in illicit drug supply and so in turn, he forms part of serious organised criminal network,” stated the Judge.

Two men were jailed for charges including possession of 0.60 grams of methamphetamine and utensils, after they were busted during a ping pong game in June this year. Two other co-accused received suspended sentences.

Kesomi Taufa (35) received a suspended sentence on conditions after being found guilty for possession of 0.03 grams of methamphetamine in Ma’ufanga.

Sione Talafekau Maloni (20) was sentenced to 12 months imprisonment fully suspended for causing serious bodily harm, when he poured gasoline over his sleeping friend’s clothes and set him alight, in what was said to have been “a joke”. Mercifullly, the friend suffered only superficial burns to his abdomen.

Samiu Langa’oi (42) was jailed for four months, for the destruction of evidence, when he crushed a cannabis plant from a bucket outside his house, and unlawful possession of drugs utensil in Leimatu’a, Vava’u.

Tevita Halatokoua (26) was sentenced to two years imprisonment, with part suspended, for possession of over 2.77 grams of methamphetamine seized in over 20 packets and other items used for dealing drugs in Nuku’alofa.

Pousima Vaioleti (29) was sentenced to 24 months imprisonment, with the last four months suspended, for the theft of a vehicle and other items valued at $50,580 from a 73-year-old man with hearing impairment in his home at Vaini. "I am quite satisfied that you have conducted a life of crime. It further seems to me, that you are not very good at it,” the Lord Chief Justice told the accused at sentencing, in the Supreme Court in Nuku’alofa.