Cop slapped with 10-year jail term for theft of ZE...

Cop slapped with 10-year jail term for theft of ZETDC cables

Zim Now Writer

A Karoi-based police officer has been slapped with a 10-year mandatory sentence following conviction for stealing 333kg of Zimbabwe Electricity Transmission and Distribution Company aluminium cables.

Samson Murire will endure the next 10 years behind bars after his application challenging conviction and sentence was trashed by High Court judge Justice Benjamin Chikowero.

The judge ruled it was clear Murire was part of the syndicate and now shifting blame to his accomplices.

Murire was jailed together with four accomplices following conviction for tampering with apparatus for the supply and generation of electricity.

The court heard that the ex-cop attempted to use his status as a policeman to evade police roadblocks and drive the cables from Karoi to Harare.

“It is not unusual that members of a criminal gang play different roles in the commission of an offence.

“Appellant (Murire) was involved in the planning of that offence. He sought and communicated information to assist in avoiding detection of the crime.

“But for the fact that all five were arrested before his gang members arrived where he was, he was earmarked to drive the taxi to Harare where the cables were to be sold.

“A whole officer-in-charge of crime would not have any business in directing criminals on how to avoid the long arm of the law unless he was counted amongst them.

“The appeal against conviction is unmeritorious. So too is the attempt to find special circumstances through the back door. In the result, the appeal be and is hereby dismissed in its entirety,” ruled the judge.

Murire and accomplices were arrested after a taxi driver, Professor Tadyanemhandu, who was hired to ferry them to Harare reported the matter to the police.

They were tried and jailed 10 years each.