BY RICHARD MUPONDE
A CLOSED Circuit Television (CCTV) footage sold out three Harare robbers who had gone on a robbing spree in Hwange and Victoria Falls after they were captured stealing from employees at Glow Petroleum Service Station in Hwange.
The trio — Kudakwashe Brough (35), Fortune George Matutu (38) and a female accomplice, Joan Nicky Bowman (34) — of 605 Rugare Close Borrowdale and Jesmond in Hatfield in Harare, respectively, were convicted by Hwange magistrate Gift Dube.
Brough pleaded guilty to the charge since he was captured red-handed on the CCTV video stealing at the service station.
He was sentenced to 15 months in prison, of which six months were conditionally suspended for five years.
His accomplices, Matutu and Bowman pleaded not guilty, arguing that Brough was the one who stole while they sat in the car, but were still convicted.
Matutu was sentenced to 18 months in prison, of which six were conditionally suspended while Bowman was sentenced to 12 months, but had six months of his sentence conditionally suspended for five years.
The court heard that on July 15, at around 10pm, the trio went to the service station in the mining town and parked their vehicle, a Nissan Sunny.
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They started observing the fuel attendants on duty and monitoring their movements.
The following day, at around 6am, they came back and observed that the fuel attendants had left their purses in the front office and hatched a plan to steal them.
Brough went to steal the purses and went away unnoticed.
However, his movements were captured on CCTV.
The fuel attendants later discovered that their property had been stolen and studied the video footage and saw what had transpired.
They instituted investigations and discovered that one of the fuel attendants’ bank card, Tamary Mhlauli, had been used to buy groceries at a supermarket in Cinderella, a suburb in the same town.
A report was made to the police, leading to the arrest of Matutu and Bowman. Brough was arrested on arrival from Victoria Falls in a hired vehicle which he had used to carry stolen goods from the resort town.
The total value of stolen property was $6 519,40. Property worth $2,787 was recovered.
