Arrested for possession of City of Harare confiden...

Arrested for possession of City of Harare confidential documents

Harare Magistrates Courts - The Standard

Michael Mashiri

A Vainona man who illegally possessed City of Harare letterheads has appeared in court.

Brian Ticky, 30, was arraigned before magistrate Stanford Mambanje at the Harare Magistrates' Court charged with possession of articles for criminal use.

The complainant in the matter is City of Harare represented by Alfred Guni in his capacity as Revenue Head.

The State represented by prosecutor Pardon Dziva alleges that, on April, 1, 2023, Zimbabwe Anti-Corruption Commission officers went No. 1 Union Avenue where they wanted to arrest Procedure Marange in connection with a case of forgery as defined in Section 137 of the Criminal Law (Codification and Reform) Act Chapter 9:23.

Upon arrival, they found Marange in the company of Ticky whom he introduced to them as his co-worker specializing in drawing building plans whilst also working with the City of Harare in the Department of Physical Planning.

The officers went on to search Tickys' laptop bag and recovered 28 copies of blank purported receipts, two blank City of Harare letterheads and a copy of a plan approval belonging to H-D Frank of Estate of Mind Developments Private Business authored by the City of Harare’s Acting Director of Works.

Enquiries made from City of Harare Chamber Secretary, Warren Chiwawa and Guni, revealed that the documents are security items which could not be given to individuals while in blank form.

The Chamber Secretary said they were having problems as such documents were being unlawfully used to create fraudulent transactions.

Ticky failed to proffer an explanation as to their possession of the said documents.

Mambanje ordered Ticky to pay ZWL$150 000. He was instructed to surrender his passport to the clerk of court and to continue to reside at the given address the matter is finalised.