Aussie man Bilal Kalache jailed over Gucci bag theft in Bali
A Sydney man who stole a designer bag worth $1250 from a Bali duty free store while on holiday has been sentenced for his crime. Judges in the Denpasar District Court on Monday night convicted the 43-year-old Merrylands man of theft.
Sydney man Bilal Kalache stole a designer bag worth $1250 from a Bali duty free store while on holiday.
For his crime he will spend four months behind bars at Kerobokan jail.
Judges in the Denpasar District Court on Monday night convicted the 43-year-old Merrylands man of theft and sentenced him to four months in jail, backdated to his arrest on January 10 this year.
Presiding judge, Kony Hartanto, said the defendant, Kalache, should be declared guilty and should be sentenced to a jail term commensurate with his crime.
“Find the defendant Bilal Kalache guilty of stealing. The defendant is sentenced to 4 months imprisonment,” Judge Hartanto said in court.
He said that during the trial process the judges had not found anything that could be used as a reason to declare that Kalache was not guilty.
The sentence was just one month short of the five months which prosecutors had recommended but well short of the five-year maximum term for stealing under Indonesian law.
Asked his response, in court, to the sentence Kalache said he accepted the court’s verdict and would not be appealing. The prosecutors have yet to declare if they will appeal.
Outside court Kalache, who was flanked by two friends, did not make any comment about his sentence.
He was found guilty of stealing a Gucci bag from a Kuta duty free store on January 10 while shopping at the store with his sone and a friend.
Kalache was arrested later when the bag, which will now be returned to the store, was found inside the luggage of his son as his son was about to fly from Bali to Australia.
He told the court that he “forgot” to pay for the cream-coloured bag as he left the store after buying a black Gucci bag and a pair of Cartier glasses.
There had been a verbal altercation with shop staff and the court heard that at one stage Kalache had gone behind the counter and used the shop computer to input the information to pay for the black bag.
In court, during his trial, Kalache apologised for the theft, saying he was sorry and had learned the hard way.
“At the end of the day it was my fault. It was my mistake, you know what I mean and I apologise for it, you know what I mean. At the end of the day it is my responsibility,” Kalache told the court during his trial.
In mitigation last night the court found that Kalache had admitted his actions and felt remorse and that he was the breadwinner of his family.
Earlier attempts by Kalache to settle the case out of court, with a peace settlement with the duty free store operators, were unsuccessful.
Kalache will now remain behind bars in Kerobokan jail until early May.
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