GOKWE — Two men from Epworth, Harare have been slapped with an effective 24-month jail term and fined $400 each after they swindled a Gokwe villager of money under the pretext of facilitating the release of a jailed relative.
SILAS NKALA STAFF REPORTER
Evans Mutero (26) and Austin Zhanota (28) both of Belapezi Farm in Epworth, conned the unsuspecting villager saying they could secure the release of his relative who had been locked up for illegal mining activities.
The pair pleaded not guilty to charges of theft and forgery when they appeared before Gokwe resident magistrate Shepherd Mjanja, but they were convicted on both charges. For the alleged theft, Mjanja fined them $400 each, failure of which they would serve five months.
He also gave them an additional suspended sentence of four months on condition they restituted the complainant $317,50 each before January 31. On the second count of forgery, Mjanja sentenced them to 30 months in jail, six of which were suspended for five years on condition of good behaviour.
The court heard that on November 21 2012 the complainant, Peter Beke of Chief Chireya in Gokwe North, met Mutero and Zhanota and informed them that he was looking for a lawyer to assist him make a bail application for a relative who had been sentenced to two years for illegal mining.
They offered to assist him and he gave them $630 to pay the lawyer, but the two converted the money to their own use.
It is the State’s case that the two went on to forge a warrant of liberation which had a fake Gokwe Magistrate’s Court date stamp and forged signature of the clerk of court.
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They then handed the bogus document to Zimbabwe Prison Services officers at the Gokwe Magistrate’s Court, but they discovered the release warrants were forged and apprehended the pair and handed them over to the police.
