Court Correspondent
A prophet at Kingdom Empowerment Church of Christ allegedly stole a laptop and cellphone worth $820 given to him by a congregant for safekeeping, after he prophesied that he would lose the gadgets to thieves.

Donald Garwe (23) of Unit G Extension in Chitungwiza appeared in court last week to answer to theft of trust property.

Garwe reportedly told the victim, Martin Nduwiva (18), of 23 Mutley Band, Belvedere in Harare of his date of birth, making him believe in the “man of the cloth”.

The incident occurred sometime in August last year when Garwe asked Nduwiva to join his church.

It is alleged that Garwe informed Nduwiva that he was now his “spiritual father”.

On December 1 the same year, Garwe visited Nduwiva at his house where he prophesied that his HP laptop and a Huawei cellphone were going to be stolen.

Further allegations are that Garwe convinced Nduwiva to surrender the gadgets to him for safekeeping or risk losing them.

And in fear of losing his prized possessions, Nduwiva complied. The court heard that Garwe allegedly assured Nduwiva that he was going to pray for the gadgets.

Nduwiva approached Garwe on December 30 with the intention of collecting his gadgets, but was surprised to hear his spiritual father claiming to have sold the laptop, but promised to replace it.

He was handed the cellphone.

Nduwiva made further inquiries from Garwe on several occasions about the laptop replacement, but was told that he should hand over the cellphone since it was still at risk of being stolen again.

Nduwiva allegedly handed over the cellphone out of fear. He reported the matter to the police after realising that there was no way he would recover his gadgets.

Garwe denied the charges before Chitungwiza magistrate Ms Blessing Murwisi and was remanded to today on $50 bail.

Mr Edmond Ndambakuwa prosecuted.

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