The Bellville Specialised Commercial Crime Court has passed a three-year house arrest sentence to a man who stole his lover’s jewelry worth R85 917 (about N87,000).
43-year old Steven Billington, from Claremont in Cape Town, pleaded guilty to the charges brought against him including stealing equipment worth R14 000 from Cradle Technologies where he previously worked.
However, he was also given a five-year suspended prison sentence and sentenced in plea-bargain proceedings before Magistrate Sabrina Sonnenberg.
The plea bargain had it that Steven started a romantic relationship with victim Natasha Wilmot in September 2013 and also moved into her house immediately.
After being together for six months, Billington was suddenly nowhere to be found and his cellphone was unreachable.
Wilmot’s aunt, Daphne Hildebrant, who stayed a little while with the couple realized that her expensive earrings were stolen together with an undisclosed amount British currency.
Also, Wilmot discovered almost immediately that her jewelry and British currency were missing as well.
Billington claimed not to have seen or taken any of those valuables which made Wilton file a theft report to the police.
However, Wilmot carried out some investigations only to discover that two gold dealers in Claremont, three Cash Crusaders outlets and one Cash Convertors had recently bought jewellery from Billington, as well as weeding equipment that Wilmot had stored in her garage.
According to the plea document, prosecutor Thersia du Toit-Smit states that Billington started stealing from Wilmot in September last year, “while their relationship was still new”.
Defence attorney Mike Jennings revealed that Billington had compensated Wilmot with a car , which she had sold for R8 000.
A condition for his suspended prison sentence was that Billington is expected to pay back the value of the items stolen, to Wilmot, Hildebrant and Cradle Technologies, installmentally every month.
