Supermarket Robber Gets Six Years, Must Also Serve Suspended Sentence

A man identified only as D.F.H. has been handed a six-year prison term by the Philipsburg court for robbing several supermarkets, and a previously suspended two-year sentence has been activated, raising his total time in custody to eight years.

Supermarket Robber Gets Six Years, Must Also Serve Suspended Sentence

Judges in Philipsburg have sent a repeat offender to prison for six years after finding him guilty of a string of hold-ups at grocery stores. The defendant, known by the initials D.F.H., struck six times between October 2025 and March 2026, preying on supermarkets operated by Chinese proprietors. Two of those shops were visited twice by the robber during that window.

On 2 July 2026, the Court of First Instance delivered its verdict. Alongside the fresh six-year term, the bench decided to put into effect a two-year suspended penalty handed down in December 2024 for an earlier robbery. That means the man will now spend eight years in detention in all.

He was found not guilty of possessing an illegal weapon. The implement he carried was a cordless drill altered to resemble a pistol. While the panel accepted that staff and customers were tricked into thinking they were staring down the barrel of a real gun, it ruled that the tool did not qualify as a firearm under the law.

When deciding on the punishment, the judges highlighted the severity of the crimes and the terror and vulnerability felt by the people inside the stores. They noted that, even though no genuine weapon was involved, the psychological impact on the victims remained considerable.

Source: 721news

Source: 721news Sint Maarten