(1987) 2 CLR 170
[*170] 1985 May 14
[TRIANTAFYLLIDES, P., PIKIS, KOURRIS, JJ.]
MICHALAKIS EFTYCHIOU CHARITOU,
Appellant,
v.
THE REPUBLIC,
Respondent.
(Criminal Appeal No. 4630).
Sentence — Causing malicious damage to a car — Incident due to a misunderstanding and loss of control by appellant, a young man 21 years' of age, who expressed his regret, asked for forgiveness and compensated the complainant in full — Imprisonment of one month — Not wrong in principle, but once the appellant received the tough lesson he needed that he should respect the property of others, no useful purpose will be served by keeping him in prison for more than 15 days.
The facts of this case sufficiently appear in the judgment of the Court.
Appeal allowed.
Sentence reduced.
Cases referred to:
Yiannakou v. The Police (1982) 2 C.L.R. 37;
Nicolaou v. The Republic (1982) 3 C.L.R. 156.
Appeal against sentence.
Appeal against sentence by Michalakis Eftychiou Charitou who was convicted on the 7th May, 1985 at the Military Court of Limassol (Case No. 61/85) on one count of the offence of causing malicious damage to a car contrary to section 321(1) of the Criminal Code Cap. 154 and section 5 of the Military Criminal Code and Procedure Law, 1964 and was sentenced to one month's imprisonment.
G. Savvides, for the appellant.
P. Ioulianou, for the respondent. [*171]
TRIANTAFYLLIDES P. gave the following judgment of the Court. The appellant has been sentenced by the Military Court to one month's imprisonment, as from 7 May 1985, for the offence of causing malicious damage to the car of the complainant on 10 August 1984.
The said offence was committed by the appellant while he was still doing his military service and the damage to the car of the complainant was assessed at £50.
The salient facts of this case are as follows:
The appellant met with the complainant at 1 a.m. on 10 August 1984, in a public street in Limassol, and there took place between them an altercation because the appellant was at the time under the mistaken impression that the complainant, had by driving dangerously, overtaken with his car the car of the appellant.
The appellant unfortunately lost control of himself and picked up a stone and scratched the nearby stationary car of the complainant along one of its sides, causing thus damage to it.
The complainant reported the matter to the Police to whom the appellant made a clean breast of what he had done, expressed his regret, asked, to be forgiven and he has, also, compensated fully the complainant for the damage that he caused to his car.
We are inclined to the view that the conduct of the appellant did call for a sentence of imprisonment and, therefore, it was not wrong in principle to send the appellant to prison; and, in this respect, we think that the case of Yiannakou v. The Police, (1982) 2 C.L.R. 37, which was cited by counsel for the appellant in the course of argument today and in which only a sentence of a fine was imposed for a similar offence, is clearly distinguishable on its own facts from the present case.
There ought, however, to be taken into account all the already mentioned mitigating factors and, also, that the appellant is a young person only twenty-one years old, who had just been released from the ranks of the National Guard and that he is a first offender.
We think what the appellant needed to be taught was a lesson that he has to respect the property of others and should not take the law into his own hands. But once this was done no useful purpose will be served by keeping him in prison for more than [*172] fifteen days as from 7 May 1985. It is correct that in the case of Nicolaou v. The Republic (1982) 3 C.L.R. 156, cited by counsel for the respondent, a sentence of imprisonment for four months which was imposed by the Military Court for malicious damage to a car was upheld on appeal but each case has to be decided on its own particular merits and the Nicolaou case differs substantially from the present case.
In the light of all the foregoing we decided to allow this appeal and reduce the sentence of imprisonment that was passed upon the appellant from one month to fifteen days.
Appeal allowed.
Sentence reduced to fifteen days.
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