Published: 19 June 2018

FOUR card cloning suspects appeared in court after they were caught on CCTV stealing a point of sale machine at Zuva Service station.

Taguma Chizema, Shawn Madzimure, Briel Matongorere and Aisha Chimhango were not asked to plead when they appeared before Harare magistrate Victoria Mashamba charged with theft.

It is the state case that on June 9 at around 7pm, the squad got to Belgravia Zuva Service station, in a Toyota Hilux which was being driven by Chizema with the intention of stealing a point of sale machine.

When they parked their vehicle at the fuel pump, they all disembarked from the car and all went to the bonnet acting like the car had a problem which needed to be fixed.

Realising that the fuel attendant Godknows Jakazira was paying attention to their vehicle, the leader of the squad Chimhango stole the CABS POS machine.

Upon realising that their mission had been accomplished, they all got back into the car and drove off.

The attendant realised that the POS machine was missing when he wanted to serve the next customer. He then lodged a complaint with the police.

The State led by Linda Gadzikwa opposed bail by calling the evidence of the Investigating officer Arron Anderson, who stated that the cases of POS machine theft were on the rise, and this particular machine was unique because it could transfer money from the Zuva bank account to Ecocash and their mission was to clone bank cards.

The State also opposed bail because Matongorere had another pending theft case, while they were also suspects in a fraud case; the State believes it has a strong case against the accused persons because there is a CCTV footage that was captured during the commission of the offense.

The matter will be heard today for bail application.
- hmetro