Woman gets convicted for smuggling copper

to smuggle 600kg of scrap copper worth $6 000 out of the country through the Beitbridge Border Post.
Lindiwe Chipayi of 522 Engineering in Highfield was convicted on her own plea of guilty on Tuesday to charges of dealing with copper without a licence when she appeared before Beitbridge magistrate Mrs Auxillia Chiumburu.
She was given an option to pay US$200 fine, failure of which she will be sent to jail.
Charges are that on January 28 this year, Chipayi went to Beitbridge Border Post aboard a SRY Coaches bus travelling from Harare to Johannesburg, South Africa.
The copper, which was packed in six sacks was been hidden in the boot of the bus.
At the border, she completed all the immigration formalities without declaring the scrap copper.
The copper was discovered when the bus was searched by detectives from the Border Control Unit on routine patrol.
She was asked to produce the customs clearance documents and a licence authorising her to deal in copper and she failed.
She was arrested and the scrap copper comprising mainly of radiators was in turn forfeited to the State.