A Princes Town man who struck his former boss on the head several times with a hammer and robbed him of $1,500 has been sentenced to six years hard labour. Vinay Sharma, 30, begged for forgiveness when he appeared before Princes Town Senior Magistrate Rajendra Rambachan, but the magistrate found his actions to be “quite vicious.”
Sharma pleaded guilty on Friday to the offence of robbery with violence which took place on May 4, 2015. Prosecutor Sgt Roger Richardson said around 3 pm Sharma and another person entered Badree’s Mini Mart at Iere Village, Princes Town and announced a hold up.
Sharma struck Lochan Badree, 70, several blows to the head, causing injuries, and robbed him of $1,500 representing the day’s sale. The following day the police were on patrol when they saw Sharma walking along the road and arrested him. The officers found the black-handled hammer in a knapsack Sharma was carrying.
Noting that Badree suffered eight lacerations to the skull and was warded at hospital for three days, the magistrate said: “It was a very violent attack on a person in order to steal his day’s earnings.” Sharma claimed he was highly intoxicated with alcohol and drugs.
Turning to Badree who was seated in court, Sharma said: “Please forgive me for what I did.”
As a result of his head injury, Badree walks with a limp and experiences dizzy spells.
“Can you make that better for him?” the magistrate asked Sharma.
The magistrate added: “The court was quite disturbed having heard a narrative of a human being taking a hammer to another of age. It was quite vicious. He gave you a job previously.” Saying Badree went through a horrifying event, the magistrate said it forever changed his life physically.
The prosecutor noted Sharma had three convictions between September and August 2013—two for assault by beating for which he was sentenced to three months each and a house breaking and larceny for which he was fined.
Saying Sharma had a history of violence and dishonesty, Rambachan said jail was 100 per cent justified in this case. He said the maximum sentence for robbery with violence in the magistrates court was ten years imprisonment.