Police officer in vehicle smuggling storm

26 Feb, 2017 - 00:02 0 Views

The Sunday News

court-gavel

Munyaradzi Musiiwa, Midlands Correspondent
A POLICE officer from Gokwe courted trouble  when he allegedly forged registration documents and fraudulently processed vehicle registration numbers for a Botswana-registered vehicle after impersonating a Zimra official.

Vimbai Mujoma (34) of Gokwe Police Camp appeared before Gokwe magistrate Mr Christopher Maturure to answer to a charge of fraud. Mujoma pleaded not guilty and was remanded out of custody to 24 March on $50 bail.

Prosecutor Mr Tineyi Tirigo told the court that on 10 February, Mujoma, who is a police detective approached Mr Cosmore Kanengenda who was driving a Toyota vehicle with a Botswana registration number B873 ASP.

Tirigo told the court that Mujoma introduced himself as a Zimra official who was employed to clear and register vehicles that were bought outside the country.

The court heard that Mujoma told Mr Kanengenda that he could assist him to change the vehicle registration numbers to the Zimbabwean numbers for a cost of $700 to which he agreed.

Tirigo further alleged that Mujoma received $700 from Mr Kanengenda and processed fake Zimbabwean vehicle registration numbers and a registration book. Mujoma handed them over to Kanengenda after a few days.

However, the matter came to surface when Mr Kanengenda was stopped by police at a roadblock in Gokwe who suspected that the registration numbers were fake.

Mr Kanengenda then implicated Mujoma whom he said was a Zimra official who helped him process the registration.

Tirigo said the matter was reported to Gokwe police leading to Mujoma’s arrest.

@Munya_Musiiwa

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