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Thupeyo Muleya, Beitbridge Bureau
TWO Beitbridge men and a woman were each sentenced to two years in jail for posing as cops to mount an illegal roadblock along the Beitbridge Masvingo Road.
The trio pretended to be detectives from the Minerals and Border Control Unit.
Alert police officers busted Albert Bako (25), Blessing Moyo (25) and Tanaka Mino (19) at the 70km peg near Bubi Village, soon after they extorted R3 700 from a suspected smuggler.
The three were convicted on their own pleas of guilty to charges of extortion and impersonation when they appeared before Beitbridge magistrate Mr Langton Mukwengi on Wednesday.
On the first count of extortion, Mr Mukwengi slapped each of the three with 12 months imprisonment and suspended four months on condition that they restitute R3 700 to the complainant.
The magistrate sentenced each of the trio to 12 months for impersonating police officers.
Mr Mukwengi conditionally suspended six months for five years.
The “cops” were left with an effective 14 months to serve.
Prosecuting, Mr Misheck Guwanda said on December 14, the trio connived to mount an illegal roadblock along the Beitbridge-Masvingo Highway.
He said they trailed a Nissan 1 tonne truck from Beitbridge town, which they suspected to be carrying smuggled goods.
Mr Guwanda said when they reached the 70km peg, they flagged the driver to stop indicating that they were police detectives from the Minerals and Border Control Unit.
The court further heard that, the trio extorted R3 700 from the motorist who paid the money and drove off.
The man made a report at an official police roadblock which was 10km away.
Mr Guwanda said the police promptly reacted and found the trio still preying on other motorists at the same spot.
They recovered R900, a fake police identification card and a clip board inscribed Border Control.
derick.khumalo