This Wednesday, the Court of Aveiro sentenced a man accused of attempting to rob a bank branch in Torreira, municipality of Murtos, to four years and four months in prison in 2020.
The uniform sentence resulted from the totality of legal standards applied to the defendant, a Portuguese American citizen, for two crimes of qualified theft, one of which was attempted.
The defendant, serving a sentence for similar crimes, was also charged with another attempted theft related to the robbery of a candy store, but was acquitted for lack of corpus delicti.
Although the law allows for a sentence of up to five years in prison, the court decided not to do so, taking into account the defendant’s criminal record for acts committed since 2013, who has several convictions for theft.
The judge also emphasized that the defendant had already served long sentences for committing similar crimes, noting that “previous convictions were not enough to deter him from committing these types of crimes.”
The crimes occurred in June 2020, less than a month after the defendant was released from prison.
In the bank robbery case, the judge noted that although the defendant remained silent, the CCTV images, together with the moment the alarm went off, led to the conclusion that “the facts occurred as stated in the indictment.”
The court also found that the accused robbed a transport company in the industrial zone of Buneiro, from where he took at least 120 euros and a computer.
During the trial, the defendant partially admitted to the facts related to the robbery of the transport company.
Another defendant, accused of a crime for gain, was also acquitted due to lack of evidence.
Author: Lusa
Source: CM Jornal
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