Fuel scam busted

following an investigation by a private forensic company.
After months of careful detective work by the forensic company, officers nabbed the alleged ringleaders identified as Elvis Muza and the other one as Govha who operated at Number 8 Whites Way, Msasa.

It is believed that between June last year and June this year, the two allegedly spearheaded a fuel stealing syndicate that bled oil companies some 20 000 litres of fuel per day.
Service stations and companies were affected mostly as a result of these activities.

The forensic details also showed that once a driver collected fuel from the National Oil Company of Zimbabwe depot and diverted the tankers to these two, he or she would be paid at a rate of US$1 per litre.

This meant a driver could be paid some $20 000 in a single run of the fraudulent fuel stealing scams before proceeding to make deliveries elsewhere.
Muza and his accomplice would allegedly either take the fuel to a service station at number 16980 Sande Crescent in Graniteside for resale or they would sell it at their premises at a price below the market rate.

Muza and Govha were arrested early this year after a forensic audit and surveillance for one year.
Their case is still pending at the courts.

Several drivers have also been arrested following the uncovering of the fuel stealing scam.
Some of the drivers were fired from work while others have cases which were still pending before the courts.

Surveillance footage was obtained and investigators swooped on various fuel service stations and depots across the city to track down the culprits.
A number of fuel siphoning scams have been reported in the country in the past few years.

In May 2011, a fuel attendant who allegedly swindled a petroleum company of fuel worth more than US$70 000 appeared in court charged with fraud while in another case in 2011 fuel worth US$73 265 was stolen.

The corrupt fuel stealing deals have sucked in a number of people in Government and in some private sector companies.
Investigators said the corrupt fuel deals have affected the smooth and cheap transportation of fuel and aided a thriving black market which regularly compromises quality control measures among other regulatory issues.