A 39-year-old man from Harare on Friday appeared in court accused of forging the date stamp of the Police General Headquarters dispatch office to claim a car he lost in a lawsuit.
Tapiwa Musa Maswela was facing fraud charges when he appeared before Harare magistrate Ms Ruth Moyo.
The allegations state that in February 2021, Masuela filed a criminal case against Bernard Gouveia for illegal borrowing or use of property (motor vehicle) under Hatfield CR: 02/38/21.
The matter was later referred to the Harare Magistrate’s Court where Gouveia was found not guilty and was acquitted prompting Hatfield Police to release the car which had been kept as Gouveia’s exhibit.
The court heard that on June 17, 2022, Masuela devised a plan to claim the rights to the car which he knew police had released to Govea.
According to the State, Maswela used a forged date stamp of the Zimbabwe Republic Police General Headquarters Dispatch Office in his court application stamp claiming to have served the Commissioner General of Police whom he named as the first defendant.
Constable Mupakaveri was registered as the recipient of the court’s application.
The court heard that Maswela then submitted a certificate of service to the High Court claiming he served as the Commissioner-General of Police.
On 6 July 2022, Justice Webster Chinamura of the High Court of Zimbabwe in Harare delivered judgment in the absence of the Commissioner-General of Police and in favor of Maswela.
Magistrate Chinamura allegedly issued an order that the Commissioner General of Police release the Mercedes Benz E280 AEC 1840 registration number to Maswela.
The matter came to light on 7 July 2022 when the Commissioner-General of Police received an order which led to an investigation into how the tort award was made.
Investigations revealed that the accused did not serve the police at all on June 17, 2022 because there were no entries in the relevant books to support his visit to the Police General Headquarters.
Because of Maswela’s action, the Commissioner General of Police suffered from bias in the good management of his duties. Announce
