Butchery fined for faking product

convicted of fraudulently using a Colcom brand on its home-made sausages.
Darlington Dumba, who is the owner, represented the butchery. Harare Magistrate, Mr Don Ndirowei, ordered the butchery to pay US$50 fine after it was convicted of fraud.
Earlier on, Dumba had denied the charges but was, however, convicted after a fully contested trial due to overwhelming evidence that linked the butchery to the offence.
In passing judgment, Mr Ndirowei said the State had managed to prove its case beyond reasonable doubt. Sausages branded with a fake Colcom logo were found in the butchery and were tested by the Standards Association of Zimbabwe.
The State led by Ms Rufaro Mazvimbakupa told the court that sometime in August last year Dumba made sausages in his butchery. He then packed them before branding them with Colcom country style sausage stickers purporting they were the company’s products. The court heard that Dumba committed the offence in order to have high sales since Colcom products were fast selling. Colcom’s security manager, Mr Batson Nkoma, got the information and reported the matter to the police. Mr Nkoma then went with police detectives to Dumba’s butchery and they recovered 18 boxes, which contained 12 x 500g of sausages. The recovered sausages were taken to the Standard Association of Zimbabwe for tests and were found to be counterfeit.