Warrant of arrest for bribe cop

A GWERU police officer, who allegedly received a $1 320 bribe to facilitate the recruitment of three prospective police officers, was yesterday issued with a warrant of arrest after he failed to turn up at court.

Arnold Garikayi Matara (32), a constable attached to the Midlands Professional Updating Centre (PUC), who is on $100 bail, was supposed to appear before provincial magistrate Pathekile Msipa to answer to fraud charges.

Msipa issued Matara with a warrant of arrest after his lawyer said he had failed to locate the cop.

It is the State's case is that in March 2016, the first complainant Rebecca Muchairi did her pre-entry test for joining the force and was advised to approach Matara for help since she was almost 30 years of age.

Matara allegedly assured Muchairi that her request would be sent to Morris Depot Recruitment for consideration and in July last year she paid $520 to the accused to facilitate the process.

In November last year, Muchairi learnt that there was recruitment and applicants were at Midlands PUC en route to Harare and when she approached accused he told her that they were recruiting senior officers.

The complainant later inquired with her brother, who is also a police officer who told her there was no such recruitment and a report was made to the police leading to accused's arrest. The court further heard that in September last year, two siblings, Joshua and Last Mugwagwa also did police pre-entry tests.

In November, their father Afoius Mugwagwa approached Matara, who allegedly demanded $400 each for the two brothers, saying it was to purchase police uniforms.

The accused was allegedly paid $700 and $100 was transferred into his account.

In the same month, Joshua and Last phoned Morris Depot and learnt that the police force provided uniforms for free. When the accused was approached to reimburse the money, he gave back $400.

The Mugwagwas also made a police report, leading to the subsequent arrest of accused.