Duo jailed four months for stealing toothpaste

Manekseka Sangkum: 

There are possibly hundreds of goods transporting trucks of all sizes crossing the border into Vietnam each day, one of which had been found by Forestry Administration authority to have contained several hundreds of live endangered species of animals, thanks to a tip off. It is reasonable to surmise that several more trucks could well be engaged in the same or similar illicit trade that are not checked or stopped on their way to the same destination, and across all those previous years of turning a blind eye. The costs to the nation's environmental health and ecology must be immense and incalculable. According to this recent report, the driver of the caught truck managed to 'escape' arrest because the FA lack the manpower to apprehend the man. And here, we learn of desperate souls sentenced to four months' imprisonment for attempting to steal six tubes of toothpaste! Not that I am trying to justify theft per se. Yet, these two cases can be illustrative of just how muddled and ridiculous the authorities are in identifying their priorities and directing needed resources towards implementing them.    

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Duo jailed four months for stealing toothpaste

ppp Thu, 31 March 2016

Niem Chheng

A man and a woman who had spent four months in pre-trial detention after being charged with attempting to steal six tubes of toothpaste had their case heard yesterday.

Nuth Daneth, 25, and Yim Savin, 18, were arrested on November 17 last year after they allegedly tried to steal the toothpaste from a Smile Mart near the Kandal market in Phnom Penh.

Savin is alleged to have driven Daneth to the shop where Daneth was caught by staff, who recovered the toothpaste.

Daneth yesterday told the Phnom Penh Municipal Court that she was pregnant and had five other children who were living with relatives.

“I didn’t have money to buy milk powder for my youngest child,” she said.

“That’s why I stole the toothpaste in order to sell it and make money to buy milk powder.”

The court’s verdict is due on April 21.