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Crime Reporter
Two Zimbabweans who were processing fake cheques and credit cards have been jailed by a Belfast judge in Ireland. They were arrested while in a north Belfast flat that was being used as a counterfeiting factory producing fake cheques and credit cards which had either been previously lost, stolen, or not taken from the post. Judge Donna McColgan told GeshemMadukae (39) and Charles Moyo (50) that she had concluded “this was a sophisticated and organised criminal endeavour for financial gain. It would be naive to consider it anything other than that.”
Moyo, from Lisnagarvey Drive in Lisburn, was handed a two-year sentence and he will spend 12 months in custody with the remaining 12 months of the sentence spent on supervised licence upon his release from custody.
Under supervised licence an individual will be released, but monitored by a criminal justice social worker to ensure that the offender keeps to the conditions of the licence and is assisted to resettle into the local community.
Co-accused Madzukae from Cliftonville Avenue – who has a previous conviction for fraud – was handed a three year sentence.
He will spend half the sentence in prison and the other half on supervised licence.
Belfast Crown Court had heard that the pair, who admitted to receiving stolen goods and possessing articles in connection with fraud, were arrested during a planned police search of the Cliftonville Avenue flat they shared, on 29 November 2012.
At an earlier hearing, prosecutor Tessa Kitson said given the quantity of items found in the flat, what was going on was quite a sophisticated operation and clearly both men knew what they were involved in.
The counterfeiting operation, she added, was not simply opportunistic, but had been “well planned, well set up, and well executed.”
Ms Kitson said the pair had named another man who they said owned all the materials in the flat, which they claimed to have innocently touched whilst cleaning the apartment.
Online Reporter