TWO police officers based in Nyamandlovu’s Traffic Section are in trouble after they collected $10 spot fine and allegedly under receipted by $5 diverting the other half to their own use.
BY SILAS NKALA
Shelton Chitakura (25) and Kudakwashe Chimombe (33) were not asked to plead to criminal abuse of duty charges as public officers when they appeared before Bulawayo magistrate Tinashe Tashaya on Friday last week. The magistrate remanded them out of custody on free bail to March 21 for trial.
The court heard that on March 10 this year at 7:49 the two police officers were manning a road block at the 38km peg along Bulawayo — Nyamandlovu road when they stopped a Nissan Caravan car, which was being driven by one Edmore Mashiri who was in the company of his wife Minenhle Mashiri and two other passengers, Joel Mugomeni and Miss Mabhikwa.
The two police officers told Mashiri that he had violated the Road Traffic Act for mixing goods and passengers because there were groceries in the motor vehicle.
It is alleged that they ordered Mashiri to pay $10 fine which he handed over to Chitakura who completed the Z69 (j) receipt and instead of endorsing $10 on all the copies he allegedly only endorsed $10 on the duplicate copy and made him to sign, while Chimombe signed as a witness. The duplicate copy was handed to Mashiri as proof of payment.
It is alleged that after Mashiri departed the two endorsed $5 on the remaining original triplicate and fast copies of the Z69 (j) and also forged Mashiri’s signature on the accused‘s portion and thereafter converted the other $5 to their own use. They later surrendered the other $5 to their Station against the original Z69 (j) copy.
After leaving the road block Mashiri noticed that the customer copy receipt he had been issued was not a carbon copy, which raised his suspicion. He then raised the query with the police Complaints Desk and investigations led to the arrest of the two officers.
