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Brenda Zinyuke, Court Reporter

THREE security guards have each been sentenced to 30 months in prison for stealing groceries worth more than $12 000 from Choppies supermarket on separate occasions.

Jethro Tumbare (39) of Pumula South suburb, Matthew Moyo (27) of Emganwini suburb and Noah Muzvidziwa (47) of Nketa 9 suburb who were employed at Guard Security Company located at the corner of Robert Mugabe way and 14th Avenue, stole from the supermarket located in Nkulumane suburb.

The stolen groceries include washing powder, rice, soap, sugar, powdered milk, toothpaste, flour, among others.

The trio pleaded guilty to unlawful entry when they appeared separately before Western Commonage magistrate Ms Tancy Dube.

They were each sentenced to 30 months in prison.

 Six months were suspended from each of their sentences for three years on condition that the accused persons do not within that period commit a similar offence.

The remaining 24 months were suspended on condition that they each complete 630 hours of community service.

Prosecuting, Mr Tapiwa Solani said sometime between October 1 last and January 12 this year, the three accused persons broke the supermarket’s ceiling and gained entry into the premises where they stole the groceries.

Mr Solani said on Friday last week, police officers received information that some security guards deployed at Choppies supermarket had broken into the supermarket.

“The detectives then proceeded to Tumbare’s house where they conducted a search and recovered the stolen groceries. The accused person was interrogated pertaining to the recovered property but he failed to account for them,” he said.

The recovered groceries were valued at $4 235 and investigations revealed that they were stolen from Choppies supermarket.

Police also conducted a search at Moyo’s and Muzvidziwa’s houses where they recovered some groceries belonging to the supermarket.

Moyo was found with groceries worth $4 363 while Muzvidziwa had $3 994 worth of groceries.

They too failed to account for them leading to their arrest.-@zinyuke98