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The Accra Circuit Court has sentenced a 32-year-old student to three years imprisonment with hard labour for inflicting cutlass wounds on a tenant he attempted to eject forcefully. The court, presided over by Ms Vivian Ellen Amoah, convicted Mahama Alhaji on his own plea. Sentencing the accused person, the court took issues with what it described as settling cases with a cutlass. The court took factors including the present circumstance of the accused person, the fact that he was a first time offender and the nature of the crime. �We live in a country with laws. The fact that he went into his bedroom to bring a cutlass and inflicted the first cut and had the opportunity to stop but did not means there was intent,� the judge said. �If the court fails to deal with these offences to serve as deterrent to others, our society will be far from being safe,� she added. Asked to put in a word in the form of a mitigation plea, the accused person prayed the court to be lenient with him as he was preparing to go back to school in August. The facts of the case as presented by ASP Agnes Boafo were that the complainant, Yaw Afatsawu, a labourer and the accused person lived in the same house at Klagon near Lashibi. On February 14, 2014, at about 8pm, the complainant was in his room when the accused sent for him. During deliberations, the accused threatened the complainant to vacate the house since it belonged to his late mother. But Afatsawu insisted that the room was given to him by one Yaa, a sister of the accused, so he would wait for instruction from her. This did not sit well with the accused person who entered his room, brought out a cutlass and started slashing him. The complainant who sustained injuries managed to wrestle the cutlass from the accused, and the matter was reported to the Community 18 Police. The police issued a medical report to Afatsawu to attend hospital for treatment, from where a report was submitted on him. On February 20, 2014, the accused was arrested and in his caution statement to the police admitted the offence.