Three wheeler driver sentenced for stealing foreign tourist’s phone

A three-wheeler driver, who stole an Apple iPhone worth LKR 175,000 from a tourist, was presented before Kandy Chief Magistrate, Srinith Wijesekera and was sentenced two years imprisonment to be suspended for ten years after a penalty of LKR 1,500.

The sentence was imposed on a resident of Bowala area named Pushpakumara. He was ordered to hand over the mobile phone to the foreigner.

The respective tourist along with another lady has booked a three-wheeler through the Pick-me app and have travelled to the Temple of the Sacred Tooth Relic from the hotel that they were staying at. The mobile phone was forgotten in the three-wheeler that they have later on questioned about it from the driver. As the driver has replied saying that there was no such phone in his vehicle the foreigner has lodged a complaint to the Kandy Tourist Police.

The police who acted accordingly, traced the location of the mobile phone using the “Find my iPhone” feature in Apple devices, was able to apprehend the suspect along with the mobile phone.

After presenting the suspect with the phone to the Kandy Magistrate’s Court which issued a strict warning to the suspect as to not to cause such inconvenience to the tourist heading to the country and imposed the above sentence.

The Judge was in praise of the police being one step ahead with technical strategies used in order to locate the mobile phone.

Headquarters Inspector (HQI) of Kandy, Chief Inspector Rasika Sampath was behind producing the suspect in court.