Porto-Novo Court: a taxi driver gets two years in prison for selling his employer’s vehicle.

The Porto-Novo Court of First Instance sentenced a taxi driver to twenty-four months’ imprisonment, six months of which are to be served, for breach of trust.

The man was found guilty of having sold, without authorization, the vehicle placed at his employer’s disposal.
According to the evidence before the court, the defendant had entered into with the owner of the vehicle a twelve-month rental contract.

The agreement provided for a weekly payment of 25,000 CFA francs in exchange for the use of the taxi. Despite the vehicle’s continued use, the driver did not meet his financial obligations, accumulating arrears.

A few weeks before the contract’s expiry, he proceeded to sell the vehicle without the owner’s knowledge, before evading any attempt to contact him.

The facts, reported by Libre-Express, led to the opening of a judicial proceeding for breach of trust.
At the end of the hearings, the court found that the offense had been established and sentenced the driver to a prison term with partial suspension.

In addition to the custodial sentence, he was ordered to pay the sum of 800,000 CFA francs to the vehicle’s owner as compensation for the damage suffered.

Having been incarcerated for more than a month, the convict will have to serve the non-suspended portion of his sentence before benefiting from the suspension, subject to compliance with the obligations set by the court.