JUDGMENT

AMAL RANARAJA, J.

1. The Accused-Appellant (hereinafter referred to as the “Appellant”) has been indicted in the High Court of Colombo together with one other person in High Court case number HCC 574/2001.

2. The charges in the indictment are as follows;

Charge That between May 01, 2000 and June 30, 2000, the 1^st accused- appellant, deceived one Ratnadeshapriya Samaraweera, the manager of the People’s Bank branch in Ginthupitiya, and induced him to hand over certain property to the appellant, namely bills of lading bearing no. PONLBOM 70999283 and 70999284 and the invoices bearing no.s MS77 and MS78 dated May 07, 2000 by dishonestly asserting that the relevant order value of Rs.850,000 would be paid to the International Division of People’s Bank and thereby committed an offence punishable under section 5(2) of the Offences Against Public Property Act No.12 of 1982.

3. At the conclusion of the trial, the Learned High Court Judge has convicted the appellant of the 1^st charge, acquitted the 2^nd person named as the accused in the 2^nd charge, and sentenced the appellant as follows;

For a term of 26 months simple imprisonment and also imposed a fine of Rs. 2,550,000 with a term of 3 y