Online Reporter
Zvikomborero Parafini
A MAN allegedly posed as a court official and demanded US$900 from a motorist, claiming he could make the complainant’s criminal record disappear.
Claddrine Chikafu (32) appeared before Harare Magistrate Ruth Moyo charged with extortion.
The State alleges that in May this year, the complainant was involved in a road traffic accident in Norton and was later convicted and sentenced to six months’ imprisonment.
His sentence was subsequently reduced to community service on appeal.
Prosecutors allege that in June, Chikafu, acting in connivance with accomplices who are still at large, devised a plan to extort money from the complainant.
The group allegedly contacted him while posing as court officials and detectives, falsely claiming they could arrange for his court records to be destroyed.
The court heard that the complainant was told to pay US$900 for the service.
Suspicious of the demand, he reported the matter to the CID Anti-Corruption Unit on July 6.
Police allegedly organised a trap operation using US$900 in marked notes.
It is alleged that one of Chikafu’s suspected accomplices, Gift Machemedze, met the complainant at Eastgate First Floor Food Court, where he allegedly collected the trap money before he was arrested.
Prosecutors say Machemedze implicated Chikafu as the person who had sent him to collect the cash.
The State further alleges that on July 17, Machemedze spotted Chikafu in Harare’s CBD and alerted detectives, leading to his arrest.
The State says US$900 was recovered during the operation, and the investigations are ongoing.
Mathew Masinge