HARARE – Three Beitbridge-based police officers have been sentenced to 10 years imprisonment each for armed robbery involving a new Land Cruiser Prado vehicle imported by the National Employment Council for the Tourism Industry (NECTIZ).
In a statement, the National Prosecution Authority of Zimbabwe (NPAZ) said Admore Nyamaropa (32), Andrew Magwenzi (35) and Prince Mugove Kuchekenya (39) who were stationed in Beitbridge, were convicted and sentenced by a Harare Magistrates Court.
Nyamaropa was sentenced to ten years imprisonment but will effectively serve six years after four years were conditionally suspended for five years.
His accomplices, Magwenzi and Kuchekenya will however, serve eight years behind bars each after the court conditionally suspended two years of their jail terms for five years.
The trio robbed Timothy Murasiranwa, an employee of the NECTIZ on April 17 last year outside Beitbridge Border Post soon after he took delivery of the silver Land Cruiser Prado vehicle.
Murasiranwa, who had travelled to Beitbridge in the company of his brother in a Toyota Rav 4 intending to drive the vehicle to Harare, was accosted by the three armed officers after he drove into a service station intending to refuel the two vehicles.
The three police details who were driving a silver Toyota Corolla without registration plates, approached and parked parallel to the Land Cruiser that Murasiranwa was driving.
Two of them including one that had a pistol tucked under his shirt, disembarked and walked towards Murasiranwa’s vehicle.
On noticing the pistol, Murasiranwa drove off but was blocked at one of the garage’s exit points by the trio’s Toyota Corolla.
The two officers that were pursuing Murasiranwa then walked to the Toyota Corolla and pulled out a rifle prompting the latter to drive to the back of the garage expecting to find another exit but found the road closed.
The trio followed Murasiranwa to the back of the garage and when his brother noticed it, he also drove there.
Murasiranwa quickly jumped into his brother’s car, leaving the Prado behind and they sped off from the scene, and the three robbers drove off in it.
A police report was made and investigations led to the recovery of the stolen vehicle on May 1, 2023 from a mechanic, leading to the arrest of Nyamaropa.
Nyamaropa then implicated Magwenzi and Kuchekenya. New Ziana
