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Marvelous Moyo Gwanda Correspondent
A GWANDA tout has been remanded in custody for allegedly stealing a police officer’s cellphone.

Mike Ndlovu, 22, of Hlalani Kuhle in the town denied stealing from Ray Moyo, 26, a police officer, when he appeared before magistrate Sheila Nazombe.

Ndlovu told the court that he picked the cellphone, Samsung Galaxy, at a garage on the ground and had intended to trace its owner but was arrested before he could do so.

“I picked the phone at Shell Garage where the complainant’s car had had been parked. I made no effort on that same day to trace its owner and I took the cellphone home,” said Ndlovu.

He said he intended to look for Moyo later as he suspected that he could have been the owner.

Despite his claims, Ndlovu gave the gadget to his brother Cabangani Ndlovu who deleted all its contents.

“I was unfortunate because police officers got to us before we located the owner,” he said.

Ndlovu was remanded in custody to August 3 for continuation of trial.

Prosecuting, Maxwell Machokoto said Ndlovu allegedly stole Moyo’s cellphone from his car while he was touting on July 26, 2015, at around 4PM.

“The complainant had parked his car at Gwanda-Bulawayo taxi rank while the accused who is a tout was soliciting for a passenger to board the car. On the same day at around 6PM he went to his brother Cabangani Ndlovu at Ultra-High suburb and exchanged the cellphone with his brother’s Nokia Asher cellphone,” said Machokoto.

“The following morning Cabangani proceeded to Gwanda town phone shops with the stolen cellphone for it to be flashed and he was caught by police detectives who were deployed in town to check second hand goods registers in various shops.”

Cabangani then indicated to the police that he had swapped the cellphone with his younger brother Ndlovu. A follow up was made by detectives leading to Ndlovu’s arrest.

The cellphone is valued at $120.