Thieving cop skips jail

A Gwanda based police officer who sneaked a Samsung cellphone from a colleague at the charge office and sold it for $35 was lucky to escape jail life after he received a wholly suspended sentence.

Emmanuel Ndaba (29) was initially slapped with a three month suspended sentence but had his sentence wholly suspended on condition he does not commit a similar offence in future.

Ndaba was arrested after the buyer started using the cellphone unaware that the gadget had it's mobile tracker activated. In mitigation Ndaba pleaded for leniency urging the court not to send him to prison as he had already lost his job and had paid back the complainant.

The court heard that sometime in June last year Kudzai Chikweru left his cellphone on the counter at the charge office at Gwanda police station.

Chikweru returned later to find his cellphone missing and reported the matter.

A few days later Chikweru's wife got a notification from the mobile tracker that the phone had been activated.

When they called the mobile number the receiver confirmed having bought the cellphone from Ndaba. Ndaba had denied the charges