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Noah Pito in Hurungwe
A magistrate’s court in Karoi has convicted a 14-year-old Form three pupil of stealing $1 000 from a teacher’s account after picking the latter’s bank and national identity cards. Karoi magistrate Mr Sam Chitumwa postponed sentencing the teenager for the next three years on condition that he does not commit any offence involving dishonesty.
Theft charges against the 14-year-old arose in August last year when he picked up the bank card and national ID belonging to a local primary school teacher.
For the State, prosecutor Mr Webster Dimingu told the court that the teenager tried different sets of codes to crack the personal identification number without success.
He said the schoolboy tried the teacher’s date of birth from the national ID and later withdrew $20, which he used to buy snacks.
The boy later transferred $1 000 into his father’s bank account, before buying $40 worth of clothes at a flea market in Magunje.
The teenager’s father reimbursed the full amount of $1 060 after he discovered his son’s misdeeds.
In his ruling, Mr Chitumwa took into consideration recommendations by the probation officer Mr Takudzwa Nkomo, who did not see the juvenile as a problem child, but as having been too experimental with IT, resulting in the theft.
Mr Nkomo recommended that the juvenile’s education be uninterrupted since the boy’s father had paid the money in full.
He said the child should be granted a chance to reform before a more drastic penalty was considered.
Online Reporter