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Lisa Mangena, Court Reporter

THREE men from Bulawayo have each been sentenced to 36 months in prison for stealing machinery and car parts.

Phinias Mabibi (40), Lesley Moyo (26) and Hillary Nyoni( 27) stole from Mr Mbulawa Ncube of Mbundani.

The trio pleaded guilty to theft before Western Commonage magistrate, Mr Stephen Ndlovu.

From each sentence, the magistrate suspended six months for five years on condition of good behaviour. A further 10 months was suspended on condition that they restitute Mr Ncube US$ 10 000 before 28 June this year.

When the magistrate asked them why they stole the parts, Mabibi said when he saw them he thought they belonged to no one while Nyoni and Moyo failed to answer the question. “I thought maybe the property was abandoned by white people way back,” he said.

The prosecutor, Mr Tapiwa Solani said sometime between March 17 and March 26 this year, near United Methodist Church, the trio found Mr Ncube’s construction car parked. “They took one chase offtrailer, one dish controller for a grader, truck excel front, one truck def excel, one concrete box roller and two bomacle rollers. All these were valued at US$ 12 000,” he said.

Mr Solani said a few days later they hired Mr Kenneth Moyo to collect bomacle rollers, the last of the loot. As they were loading the rollers into a truck, they were driven away by members of the public and left a bag that had spanners.

Mr Moyo took the bag to the police and reported the matter, leading to the recovery of the bomacle rollers and the arrest of the trio. — @LissahMangena