Congregant steals kombi during prayer session

AN UNLICENCED Goromonzi man, who stole a fellow church mate's commuter omnibus during a prayer session and later dumped it in Shamva, was on Monday sentenced to a six-year jail term for vehicle theft.

Tedson Gwabada had initially denied the charge of stealing Abudu Bilani's vehicle, but Marondera magistrate Ignatius Mhene ruled against him due to overwhelming evidence presented in court.

The court heard that the stolen vehicle had 11 bags of shelled maize and a bucket of tomatoes.

Gwabada will serve an effective four-year jail term after two years were suspended on condition of good behaviour.

On the second count of driving without a driver's licence, Gwabada was sentenced to a wholly suspended three-month jail term.

According to court papers, on June 19 this year, Gwabada accompanied the complainant to Alexandra Farm for a prayer session.

While at the prayer session, Gwabada stealthily left the scene and walked back to the parked vehicle and drove it to his father's homestead at Plot 51, Masala Farm in the Musiiwa area in Goromonzi.

After the prayer session, Bilani discovered that his vehicle had been stolen and filed a police report.

The vehicle was later found dumped along the Harare-Shamva Road near Storndorn Farm on June 22, leading to Gwabada's arrest and recovery of the car's keys, a copy of the route authority, and a class 2 driver's licence belonging to Justine Justine, who is Bilani's driver.

Gwabada admitted that he had sold some of the maize he found in the car.

The value of the stolen property was pegged at $10 170 and only $10 000 worth was recovered.

Courage Chakawa represented the State.