Shoplifting Harare doctor faces jail

By Fungai Lupande

HARARE – A medical doctor was yesterday facing the loss of his job and financial ruin after pleading guilty to shoplifting.

Dr Paul Kadungure, 32, was caught stealing groceries worth $91 at an OK Zimbabwe supermarket in Harare’s Fife Avenue Shopping Centre. He blamed his actions on the “state of the mind” at the time he committed the crime.

Dr Kadungure, of 725 Excett Building, City Doctors, Robert Mugabe Way in Harare, pleaded guilty to theft charges before Harare magistrate Nomsa Sabarauta.

He will be sentenced today after the State asked for time to gather Dr Kadungure’s previous convictions.

Prosecutor Shambadzeni Fungura told the court that Dr Kadungure recently appeared in court for stealing groceries at a Spar Supermarket, and he is suspected of having committed similar offences.

In mitigation, Dr Kadungure told the court that it was not his intention to steal from the supermarket.

“I offered to pay for the groceries because I had the money, but they insisted on arresting me,” he said.

“I’m the breadwinner and I look after my bed-ridden mother. I’m married and have a new-born baby.”

The court heard that on Monday, Dr Kadungure entered OK Zimbabwe Fife Avenue and loaded into a trolley 12 canned Castle lagers, two bottles of Viceroy brandy, five packs of goat chop, Probrands lemon and lime, a kilogramme of onions, chicken cutlets, pork leg chops, Irvines shrink eggs, a kilogramme of tomatoes, Kleenex baby soft tissue, beef short ribs, pork shoulder chops, brisket and Chakalaka Boerewors.

He briefly left the trolley and took a Moojoos Daily Pine and one carrier bag to the till and paid $0.60. After paying for the two items, he went back for the trolley and pushed it towards the exit.

At the exit point he showed the security guard the $0.60 receipt for the two items. But a close circuit television monitor alerted the guard who apprehended the doctor. The Herald