IVAINERUDO MAGARAZANO
CHIREDZI-Cephas Makaripe (40) of Hatcliff Extension Harare was slapped with 6 years in jail by Chiredzi Regional Magistrate Judith Zuyu for stealing a car.
Makaripe was found guilty of contravening Section 124 Criminal Law Codification Act and was sentenced to 6 years with 2 years suspended for good behavior.
It was the state case that on the April 3 this year, Makaripe who was then in South Africa stole a parked Toyota Prado VXL and disconnected the vehicle’ tracker and forged Zimbabwean vehicle registration plates.
Makaripe then smuggled the car from South Africa to Zimbabwe through an illegal crossing point along Limpopo River.
Police detectives received a tip- off and the vehicle was intercepted at 145km peg at Beitbridge – Masvingo tollgate in Chivi leading to his arrest and the car being recovered.
The recovered Zimbabwe vehicle registration plates were forwarded to the Central Vehicle Registry for verification and it was discovered that they were forged under a company named Cross Country Containers Private Limited.
On April 24, Carpenter Kling Kenneth Karl who had also reported the incident to the South African Police Service was brought to CID Mwenezi and he produced the original vehicle’ registration book and positively identified the recovered stolen car as his.
