A prominent Mutare Christ Embassy Church pastor was remanded in custody on Tuesday after he was arrested while driving his vehicle affixed with stolen Counter Intelligence vehicle registration plates.
Thomas Marongwe (34) appeared before magistrate Marehwanazvo Gofa who remanded him in custody pending bail.
Marongwe is represented by Tinashe Mavhaire.
Allegations are that sometime in 2022 Sean Persuade Kaseke who is at large smuggled into Zimbabwe a white Toyota Fortuner motor vehicle Automatic transmission and placed it for sale at Sean Motors car sale situated at Corner Robert Mugabe and Chiremba Road, Harare.
The Toyota Fortuner motor vehicle was then affixed with registration plates number AFC 0441 that had been stolen from the President’s Office and a fake registration book was forged to purport that the motor vehicle was registered as that of the President’s Department.
It is alleged that on January 19, this year Marongwe who had learnt that Elton Tapiwa Zikatih was looking for an automatic Toyota Fortuner, connived with Kaseke and hatched a plan to defraud Zikatih.
The accused then misrepresented to Zikatih that the smuggled white automatic Toyota Fortuner affixed with stolen Security Service registration numbers AFC 0441 stolen from the Office of the President’s Department being offered for sale was an ex-government motor vehicle.
The accused further misrepresented to Zikatih that the motor vehicle was bought from a senior government official and as such after buying it, it was going to be used as it was until November 2023 when it would be de-registered as Government of Zimbabwe motor vehicle.
Thereafter, that is when all documentation regarding change of ownership could be done.
Acting on the accused’s misrepresentation, Zikatih bought the motor vehicle by swapping it with his Toyota Hilux GD6 registration number AFW 2782 plus a top-up of US$10 000-00.
Marongwe further misrepresented to Zikatih that he would be issued with an exemption letter by Kaseke who is still at large so that he would be able to drive the motor vehicle freely up to November 2023 when change of ownership was going to be done.
It is alleged that in order to convince Zikatih, Marongwe informed him that it was not his first time to buy ex-government motor vehicles as he previously bought an ex-government motor vehicle from a Senior Government official without any problems.
As a result of accused’s misrepresentation, Zikatih bought the motor vehicle and started using it whilst affixed with stolen government registration plates.
The motor vehicle was recovered and can be produced as exhibit.
Pastors for ED
The seemily shadow organisation. Do they even operate with plated vehicles?
I don’t like Christ Embassy that church is a homeground of evil people.