Supervision replaced with fine

By Pai Mulitalo Ale 06 June 2016, 12:00AM

The Supreme Court Justice Mata Tuatagaloa substituted 12 months supervision and 60 hours of community service sentence for a convicted female, Andrea Ah Chong. 

Ms Ah Chong was arrested and charged together with her partner Stewart Webber for possession of illegal drugs in Samoa 

The pair changed their pleas to the charges against them, and only Ms Ah Chong was convicted of one count of possession of marijuana seeds. 

She was convicted and sentenced to 12 months supervision and 60 community hours service in March this year 

The sentence was replaced with a monetary sentence of $500 for the remaining months of supervision and $100 for the remaining hours of community service after receipt of an application filed by the Probation Office.  

“In that way you can go have your baby and you don’t have to return after that,” said Justice Tuatagaloa.

The application by the probation office is to cancel the sentencing already imposed for the accused so that she can travel overseas to give birth to her unborn child. 

However it was not taken lightly by Justice Tuatagaloa and she did not accept the application to cancel her sentencing but replaced it with a monetary fine.

After revealing all the circumstances and the effect of this application brought before the court, Justice Tuatagaloa warned the probation office about this kind of application.

It was also the reason why she wanted the matter to be called before the court so that the Prosecution could be aware of it to avoid any misunderstandings.  Not only that, but also to avoid Prosecution from coming back and appealing the decision already being made for the accused.

By Pai Mulitalo Ale 06 June 2016, 12:00AM
Samoa Observer

Upgrade to Premium

Subscribe to
Samoa Observer Online

Enjoy unlimited access to all our articles on any device + free trial to e-Edition. You can cancel anytime.

>