'Cops' scam chicken farmer

Two unemployed men allegedly forged Zimbabwe Republic Police identity cards in a well-orchestrated scam to dupe a Harare chicken farmer of $2 275.

Nzwananai Zhakata and Knowledge Ncube - who are facing charges of fraud and impersonating police details - appeared in court yesterday.

They were not asked to plead when they appeared before Harare magistrate Rumbidzai Mugwagwa.

Their matter was rolled over to today for bail hearing.

It is the State's case that the complainant was approached by the accused's accomplice, only identified as Charakupa, sometime in September.

Charakupa allegedly misrepresented to be an employee of Beatrice High School tasked to procure bulk chickens for the school.

He went on to indicate that the school wanted 350 dressed chickens and could pay through a bank transfer.

The complainant is said to have supplied Charakupa with his Steward Bank account number to complete the transfer at an agreed $6,50 per bird.

The State further alleges that on October 24, Charakupa phoned the complainant informing him that he had completed the transfer of $2 275 into his account through RTGS and was coming to collect the chickens.

The complainant is said to have then driven to an open space near Zimbabwe College of Music along Rotten Row with the 350 dressed chickens where he met Charakupa, who gave him a fake RTGS document for Standard Chartered Bank as proof of transfer.

The pair is said to have loaded the 350 slaughtered chickens into Charakupa's pickup truck.

At that time, the two accused men, who were allegedly acting in consent with Charakupa, approached and flashed fake ZRP identity cards.

The accused pretended to be detectives with the Criminal Investigation Department Serious Fraud Squad in Harare.

They informed the complainant that they were arresting him for conducting business at an undesignated zone.

The complainant reported the matter to the police, leading to the arrest of the two accused.

Upon arrest, the accused were found in possession of two forged police identity cards belonging to other police officers, but bearing their names and faces.