admin
Prosper Dembedza
Herald Correspondent
FOUR men have appeared in court on allegations of stealing a vehicle using illegally acquired court documents.
Tafadzwa Makufa (21), Tinashe Mawire (20), Trevor Kadzionde (20) and Sean Jaison (20), appeared before Harare magistrate Mr Simon Kandiero and were remanded in custody after the State opposed bail.
The court heard that on July 10, Mr Robert Makanjera advertised his black Mercedes Benz C200 vehicle, registration number AGN0156, for sale through his Facebook account.
It is the State’s case that Makufa phoned Mr Makanjera asking whether the vehicle was still available for sale, which he confirmed. Makufa then asked for a copy of the vehicle registration book from Mr Makanjera, but he refused to give it to him.
The court heard that on August 1, at around 5pm, Makufa, who was in the company of Kadzionde, went to Mr Makanjera’s workplace and viewed the vehicle that was being sold for US$25 000.
The next day Makufa and Mawire prepared a summons in which Makufa purported to be the plaintiff and Mawire the defendant, over Mr Makanjera’s vehicle and filed the summons with the Clerk of Court at Chitungwiza Magistrates Court. This was to create fake ownership documents for the vehicle.
A warrant of execution and delivery against the property as well as a consent order was then granted by the Chitungwiza Magistrates Court under case number CH CG 253/24 on the same date, wherein it was ordered that Makufa, who purported to be the plaintiff, was declared the true and lawful owner of the vehicle while Mawire, who purported to be the defendant, was ordered to immediately surrender the vehicle and its registration book.
On August 3, Makufa contacted Mr Makanjera over the cellphone and negotiated the price of the vehicle from US$25 000 to US$22 000 and he agreed.
On August 4, Makufa asked Mr Makanjera to send him his banking details through WhatsApp and he was supplied a Stanbic Bank account number. On August 5, Makufa phoned him again and asked him to bring the vehicle to Harare Kopje, Denmark Building, Skipper Hoste Drive and Mr Makanjera complied.
Upon arrival at the place, Makufa, who was in the company of Kadzionde, introduced the other two men as his brothers and they all got into the vehicle. They then requested to test drive the vehicle and when they got to Pennywise Shopping Centre in Eastlea, they ordered Mr Makanjera to stop and verified the motor vehicle’s chassis number and other motor vehicle particulars against the registration book and they satisfied themselves that all the details were correct.
Afterwards, they asked Mr Makanjera to drive to Runhare House where they said they wanted to collect money for the payment of the vehicle.
Upon arrival at Runhare House, Mr Makanjera parked the vehicle across the road next to the Civil Court entrance and another vehicle that was being driven by unknown people, came and parked, blocking his vehicle from the front.
Immediately, one of the occupants nicknamed Murehwa, who later gave Mr Makanjera his cellphone number 0715025725, introduced himself as a Messenger of Court and the other man who Mr Makanjera did not know by name, but who looked elderly, tall and slim and dark in complexion, searched him and took his vehicle keys from his left side pocket.
Murehwa then handed over a copy of the warrant of execution and delivery against property under case number CH CG253/24 where Mr Makanjera’s vehicle was listed as belonging to Makufa, who was the plaintiff and Mawire the defendant. Makufa immediately drove off the vehicle.
Upon realising he had been duped of his vehicle, Mr Makanjera reported the matter at Harare Central Police station.
On August 10, the four suspects were arrested and Mr Makanjera’s vehicle was recovered from Makufa with its registration number plates changed from AGN0156 to AGS2066.
The recovered vehicle can be produced in court as an exhibit.
Also recovered from Makufa was the warrant of execution and delivery against property, consent order, agreement of sale in respect of the complainant’s vehicle between Makufa and Jaison, a Zinara receipt, light vehicle licence and vehicle insurance disc.
Online Reporter