BRITISH Citizen Jean Banton on Friday escaped the three year jail term imposed on him by the Kisutu Resident Magistrate’s Court in Dar es Salaam after paying 10m/- fine for exporting minerals worth of over 29m/- without a licence.
In addition to the sentence, the court also confiscated to the government, the minerals in question.
Principal Resident Magistrate Thomas Simba sentenced the Briton after convicting him on his own plea of guilty to the charges.
He took into consideration the some mitigating factors; that the convict was a first offender and that he had admitted to the charges to serve the court’s time.
“I have also taken into account the nature of this case. Therefore, you will have to pay a fine of 5m/-for each offence committed, failure of which you will go to jail for three years’ imprisonment,” said the magistrate.
Prior to the sentencing, Senior State Attorney Wankyo Simon said he had no recollection of the convict’s past criminal record, but asked the court to impose a severe punishment on him in order to serve as a lesson to others who plan to commit such offences.
He said that the accused had entered the country for tourism purposes and not doing mining business and that he did not have a permit that allows him to export the mineral.
According to him, the act done was aimed at destabilizing the country’s economy.
The trial attorney also forcefully pressed the court to confiscate the minerals and become the property of the state.
Defence lawyer Hamza Jabir claimed his client was a first offender, had not disturbed the court by confessing his own crimes and that he had several family members that depended on him.
Furthermore, the lawyer said he was sick as he was facing health complications on the backbone and that he experienced problems in the respiratory system.
The defence attorney, thus, asked the court to give him a lenient sentence, including a small fine.
Earlier, reading memorandum of facts, State Attorney Sylvia Mitanto claimed that Banton was a businessman, his residence was in London in the United Kingdom and that he had traveled to Tanzania through Emirates Flight via Dubai.
She claimed on December 4 , 2019, the convict came into the country while coming from Rwanda to tour the country and greet his friends and that on December 6, 2019 at Julius Nyerere Airport, he was found transporting and owning the gold without permission.
The trial attorney told the court that the Mining Commission examined the minerals had and found that they weighs 300.7 grams worth of 29,067 ,318/-. Banton was first arraigned on December 20, 2019 to face the two charges.
