Man arrested over bogus court orders

A Bulawayo man, sucked into a new fake High Court order scam that has rocked the judiciary system, has been arrested.

Vision Sithole was arrested after the High Court launched investigations into the suspected fake High Court order scam.

The order was purportedly granted in Harare despite the fact that both the applicant and the respondent in the case, reside in Bulawayo.

The fake High Court order was discovered after a Bulawayo woman, Siphatisiwe Dube, who was the respondent in the matter, wrote a letter to the High Court in Harare to verify the authenticity of the order.

In the letter which was addressed to the Registrar of the High Court, Dube queried how the purported order came from Harare yet both the applicant and the respondent stay in Bulawayo.

She further stated that she had not been served with any form of communication from the High Court prior to the discovery of a photocopy of the order which she found in a letter box.

According to court papers, the order is purported to have been granted by Justice Ben Hlatshwayo on the 5th of December last year in Harare and had the registrar of the High Court Civil Division's date stamp.

The order was to the effect that the respondent, Dube should release a vehicle to Vision Sithole and if she fails to do so, the Deputy Sheriff Bulawayo was to immediately take custody of the said vehicle.

Reporters have also established that the spelling of 'sheriff' was wrong, an unusual mistake found on official court papers.

Cases of fake High Court orders have become rampant in the country and despite the introduction of High Court orders with security features, innocent citizens continue to be duped.