A MZUZU based amateur boxer's career is in jeopardy after he was on Thursday slapped with an eight-year imprisonment sentence with hard labour (IHL) after being found guilty of robbing a Nigerian.

The boxer, Pachalo Chimaliro, 18, was accused of attacking 84-year-old Matthews Chukwu Emeka and robbing him of a travelling bag, mobile phone and K12,000 cash.

The incident happened in October last year near Katoto traffic lights

where Emeka wanted to cross the main road.

Chimaliro is said to have had a friend, who is still at large, during the attack.

"The court, sitting before First Grade Magistrate Lillian Munthali, heard that the convict and his friend emerged from the direction the victim was coming from and severely beat him up," said Mzuzu police spokesperson Maurice Chapola.

"The victim had an opportunity to escape the beating because of the lights from an oncoming vehicle which forced the two to run away. He had grabbed the convict but he slipped away."

Chimaliro was charged with the offence of robbery with violence which contravenes section 301 of the Penal Code. Chapola said the convict denied the charge throughout the trial forcing the state to parade three witnesses.

However, during mitigation, Chimaliro pleaded with Magistrate Munthali for a lenient sentence because it was his colleague on the run that masterminded the plot.

But Chapola said the police prosecutor Foster Saidi pleaded with the court to mete out a stiffer sentence on Chimaliro, stressing that he was a ha-bitual criminal with a number of previ¬ous convictions hanging on his head.

Chapola said Chimaliro was sent to Mpemba Reformitory Centre