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Blessings Chidakwa-Herald Reporter

GOVERNMENT is losing potential revenue due to the proliferation of counterfeit vehicle and insurance licences created by unscrupulous dealers.

These fake licenses are sold to unsuspecting clients, who only discover the scam when they attempt to renew their licences upon expiry.

The dealers are printing fake licences that are not linked to the Zimbabwe National Road Authority (Zinara) system, while others are forging original ones by cutting and changing year sections which will be neatly replaced with glue.

The forgery is hard to notice with the naked eye such that the vehicles easily pass undetected at roadblocks and also avoid clamping when parked in the central business district (CBD).

Zinara public relations and marketing manager, Mr Tendai Mugabe, yesterday urged the public to register their vehicles with accredited agents.

“This is a criminal act that should be best handled by the police. As Zinara, we urge the motoring public to use accredited Zinara agents to license their vehicles or visit our offices across the country.

“Also, if one wants to buy a pre-used car locally, we urge them to first check the licensing status of the respective vehicle with Zinara,” he said.

Mr Mugabe said the public should also contact their call centre.

National police spokesperson Commissioner Paul Nyathi said they were now on high alert following several reports on the issue.

“We are going to investigate such issues. It is a criminal act and the law will take its course. These are some of the tactics that robbers use to commit serious crimes. We are warning car sales or whoever is behind that to desist,” he said.

The Herald is in possession of a counterfeit vehicle licence which expires at the end of this month.

The scam was busted last Saturday when the victim went to pay the vehicle’s insurance and radio licence at a retail store in Harare only to be informed that the car had arrears dating back to June last year.

Upon further inquiry and close checking on the vehicle licence, it was discovered that it had been tampered with as part of the year “2024” had been added and glued.

Sources revealed a surge in cases of individuals being duped into purchasing fake vehicle and insurance licenses, only to discover the scam when renewing.

In January this year, Takudzwa Nyadenga (28) appeared before Harare Magistrate Mrs Appollonia Marutya charged with fraud after allegedly creating fake motor vehicle licence discs.

The State alleged that between December 30, 2023, and January 2, 2024, Nyadenga connived with Shingirai Sauka and misrepresented facts to the complainant, Anesu Samhembere, that they could buy motor vehicle licence discs on his behalf.

They were given US$4 000 and they printed fake motor vehicle licence discs and handed them over to Samhembere.

However, one of Samhembere‘s motor vehicles was intercepted while passing a tollgate for having a fake licence disc.

Samhembere later verified with Zinara and discovered that all the licence discs he had been given by Nyadenga and Sauka were fake.

This prompted him to file a report with the police, leading to the arrest of Nyadenga.