The State v Henry Mapi (1998) N1936

• Jurisdiction: Papua New Guinea
• Judge: Sakora J
• Judgment Date: 03 July 1998
• Citation: (1998) N1936
• Court: National Court
• Year: 1998
• Judgement Number: N1936

National Court: Sakora J

Judgment Delivered: 3 July 1998

N1936

PAPUA NEW GUINEA

[In the National Court of Justice]

CR. 125 OF 1997

THE STATE

-v-

HENRY MAPI

Lae: Sakora, J

1998: 11, 19, 20, 25 May

29 June & 1, & 3 July

Mr M Peter for the State

Mr C Inkisopo for the Defence

SENTENCE

3 July, 1998.

SAKORA, J: Henry Mapi was found guilty and convicted of two counts of fraudulent conversion of two sums of money, K6,000.00 and K9,656.00, belonging to Steven Nandang of Wau and his Australian business partner Andrew Ralph Thomson. The offences were committed in Bulolo in the Morobe Province between January and September 1995. At the time of the offence the prisoner was a senior public servant in the Department of Morobe, holding the position of Business Development Officer at Bulolo.

The case went to trial for four days, after which I was satisfied that an elaborate deceitful scheme had been concocted by the prisoner to steal these large sums of money from the complainant, a local businessman from the area who could ill-afford to lose such monies. But he did lose his and his associate’s monies only through the fraudulent manipulation of the prisoner. It is instructive to note that the prisoner, Henry Mapi, is no stranger to his victim, Steven Nandang, the latter being a nephew of the former (on the latter’s mother’s side). This close family relationship, creating as it did the initial point of reference for trust, was thus one of the enabling factors in the success of the fraud that was being perpetrated.

The prisoner had been employed as a Business Development Officer with the Department of Gulf in Kerema between 1978 and 1986, after which he procured employment in the private sector. He rejoined the public service with the Department of Morobe in 1992, and was posted to Bulolo as a Business Development Officer. It was in this official capacity that he committed the two offences.

The State’s case was that the prisoner, having concocted this scheme of fraud and deceit, approached the victim and told him that he would be able to negotiate a government grant of K250,000.00 from the Department of Finance, Port Moresby, to assist him (Steven Nandang) set up a saw-mill. He advised the victim that there was such a government scheme, and he was, and would be, acting as the Business Development Officer in the project. The victim was further advised that to be accepted for the scheme, and thus benefit from the K250,000.00 grant, he (Steven Nandang) had to come up with a sum of K15,000.00 for deposit in an Interest Bearing Deposit (IBD) account. This was said to constitute a demonstration of the victim/applicant’s qualification as a viable business venture.

That was the representation made to Steven Nandang by the prisoner in his official capacity, so that once the K15,000.00 deposit was given then the K250,000.00 would be made available to him for his sawmill. The prisoner knew that the victim was engaged in a timber project; so he was approached with this scheme for government funding. The prisoner being a relative as well as a Business Development Officer for the Wau-Bulolo area of Morobe had no problems being trusted by Steven Nandang who wrote him a cheque for K6,000.00 and gave it to him on 20 January 1995. The victim rang his business partner, Ralph Thomson, in Australia the same day to send the balance to make up the required and requested K15,000.00. Australian dollars converted into K9,656.00 were subsequently transmitted from Australia by telegraph transfer. These monies were then deposited into the prisoner’s personal bank account.

The scheme as represented to Steven Nandang by the prisoner did not involve anybody else. Upon receipt of the total sum of K15,000.00 (though evidence prove K15,656.00 was in fact handed over to the prisoner), the prisoner was to give this to the Finance Department for deposit into a government IBD account.

After these two sums were received by the prisoner, Steven Nangang sought advice and progress on his application...