Today in the High Court of Samoa, Punaotala (Tara) Sakai and Masetoni Isaako pleaded guilty to $5,230.00 (WST) THEFT AS A SERVANT from my company Gold Tick Services Ltd in October/November 2010.
Sentencing will be in early December before the same Judge (Spicer).
The original charge was for over $WST39,000.00 T.A.A.S., however the Attorney General withdrew all items not actually confessed by the couple to the court, and there will be no further action as a result.
UPDATE, Jan 2012: According to the Investigating Officer, Masetoni Isaako received 9 months jail. Tara Sakai failed to appear and a warrant for her arrest has been issued.
These are people whom we helped in no inconsequential ways in late 2010 and in early 2011, and gave many chances to. Basically, we were victims of a series of cons and their individual greed. Our biggest mistake was to trust. As a result of these events we are hopefully wiser, and are starting to view the people around us here in Samoa more and more as the Samoan people themselves do, negatively – rather than optimistically. It’s sad, as I would really like to be able to trust people.
I am cynical of the conduct of the criminals, one a self-confessed career criminal with multiple fraud charges pending (NZ & Samoa) and the other who appears to be “merely a thief”. They failed to appear and had to be arrested, one of them twice, and they confessed to only that which they believed that we had evidence for, and one of them continued to attempt the con literally only weeks before the hearing! None of the equipment has been voluntarily returned and I know that they are fully aware of where the stolen equipment is, in fact I know that they continue to use some of the construction equipment until quite recently, possibly even still currently. To put it politely, their confessions are simply pragmatism and certainly lack any repentance!
Throughout the complaint procedure, the investigation by the police, the Attorney General’s office and the court hearing the distinct impression that I got was that efforts to exercise justice existed to the absolute minimum extent possible. It took over a year for the case to be processed. No effort or interest was shown by anyone involved to recover the gear and there was actual resistance to attempting recovery action. Many who were party to the theft and willing recipients of the stolen gear have also gotten away Scott-free.
What the judge says or does with these people from here matters little to me – from my perspective due process was completed and the Justice System has done its bit.
These criminals are not the first to learn that I never give up when it comes to doing the right thing in regards to justice. I’ve said before that all criminals targeting S.W.A.P. will all be handed over to the Police for appropriate action. These two were not the first, and there will be more as well who have committed crimes against us and have yet to show remorse who will end up facing a judge.
This is not a vendetta thing – it is just doing the right thing. I actually lose control of the matter very early on in the events – as the AG lawyer so eloquently put it to me today (not), my job was fully done when I laid the police complaint. She makes all the decisions once the police give her the file.
It is a challenging business working with the legal system here. I’ve found that seeking to be involved causes offense as you are seem to be pushy and asking to be informed is also problematic. Yet if you don’t do the work yourself and push it along and complain it never gets done. The typical Samoan reaction to this sort of thing here from those in authority is just resignation. They know that causing a scene just backfires on them so they suck it up. I’ve learned that lesson here well, too!
There are two judgement courts for criminals – one on earth and our final judgement. I thank God that there is a second one – a court in which we all face our maker and in which no stone will remain unturned, and the full truth and nothing but the truth will be revealed.
In the meantime, the public should recognise the face of the people who live by standards lesser than most in the Western world consider the norm.
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