Britisher sentenced for stealing T20 tickets

By Lakmal Sooriyagoda

The Britisher who pleaded guilty to stealing 84 ICC World Cup T20 tickets from the Thurstan College playground ticket counter was yesterday sentenced to one year’s suspended imprisonment by a Colombo Court.

When the accused, Buller Pissero Antonio of Trevodrive Newhall in Manchester, was produced before the Colombo Chief Magistrate, the Cinnamon Gardens Police informed that they had received the fingerprint report in respect of the accused.

Police submitted Court that according to the fingerprint report, the accused did not have any previous conviction. Having taking into consideration the facts, Chief Magistrate Rashmi Singappuli imposed a one-year imprisonment suspended for five years.

In this case, Cinnamon Gardens Police said in a complaint on 30 September, Shani Dhamayanthi of the Sri Lanka Cricket Board told the Cinnamon Gardens Police that the suspect was caught by security guards and spectators who came to buy tickets for the T20 cricket match.

The Police said the spectators had alleged that they had seen a foreigner who was among the crowd stealing a bundle of tickets and running away.

The complainant informed the security guards and the suspect was caught with the help of the spectators. They had recovered 84 tickets with serial numbers 1088917 to 1087000.

However, Attorney-at-Law Paranthaka De Silva appearing for the suspect had said the suspect submitted that he took those 84 tickets that were kept on the counter believing them to be hand bills because neither the venue, nor the time, date, nor value of the ticket was printed on the ticket.