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Senior Court Reporter
TWO general workers attached to the police equitation department at Morris Depot in Harare appeared in court yesterday on allegations of conning a truck driver of cash after lying that they could fast-track the process of criminal record clearing before stamping his documents with fake stamps.
Luckson Matanda and Andrew Bonyongwe were not asked to plead when they appeared before Harare magistrate Mrs Yeukai Dzuda, who remanded them in custody to today for bail hearing.
The duo allegedly duped a Magtak Transport driver.
Circumstances leading to their arrest are that the driver secured employment with a trucking company called Star International, which required clearance for criminal record.
On June 16, the driver went to Morris Depot to have his fingerprints taken and get cleared.
On his way to Morris Depot, whilst holding an envelope, he was then intercepted by the two who offered to assist him since they claimed to have been attached to Central Criminal Bureau, which deals with vetting of fingerprints.
The two allegedly took the driver to a room at the equitation department where his fingerprints were recorded by Bonyongwe.
After the recording of the fingerprints, they were given to their accomplice, who left the room for 15 minutes and returned with the processed fingerprints.
They then demanded US$10 as payment for the service rendered.
The money was handed over to Bonyongwe.
It is alleged that the driver took the fingerprints to Star International where he had secured employment.
Star International later sent the fingerprints to CID Central Criminal Bureau for verification and it was discovered that the fingerprints were wrongly classified and bearing fake date stamps.
The driver was invited to CID and was interviewed.
He gave the police Bonyongwe and Matanda’s cellphone numbers leading to their arrest.
Online Reporter