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Yeukai Karengezeka

Court Correspondent

Five men appeared in court yesterday for masquerading as members of the Zimbabwe Anti-Corruption Commission (ZACC) and attempting to dupe a car dealer.

Two of the men are police officers, one is a retired officer, and two of the men are unemployed.

The accused are Tinashe Mhere (27), Peter Maodzeka, Nyasha Ndumo (32), Luckmore Makwara (36) and Raymond Banda (28).

They appeared before Harare magistrate Mr Dennis Mangosi charged with impersonation, and were remanded in custody pending a bail ruling.

The complainant is the State represented by Artwell Mpofu, an investigations officer with ZACC.

Mhere and Banda are unemployed, while Maodzeka is a retired police officer, Ndumo and Makwara are serving members of the police, but are presently suspended.

The State led by Ms Grace Mugocheke alleged that on September 26, Mhere and David Nyasuka who is still at large, approached Tawanda Dekwende, a car sales man at the intersection of Prince Edward Road and Josiah Tongogara Avenue, saying they were selling a motor vehicle.

Mr Dekwende requested to see their national identification cards first so that he could draft the agreement of sale.

The accused then informed him that they were genuine people employed by ZACC and produced ZACC identity cards. But Mr Dekwende insisted that they should produce national identification cards, as ZACC identification cards were not appropriate for business transactions.

This is when Mhere and Nyasuka then said they would go collect their national identification cards from their homes. After the two left, Mr Dekwende called ZACC to verify if the two were members of the organisation.

ZACC investigations officers quickly reacted and arrested Mhere upon return.

Upon arrest, Mhere was found in possession of a fake ZACC identity card in the name of David Nyasuka.

Further investigations by ZACC revealed that Mhere was working in cahoots with four other suspects who have since been arrested, except for Nyasuka who is still at large.

The ZACC investigations officers recovered the national identity cards, police identification cards and the fake ZACC identification cards of the gang.