ZIMRA Officer Extorts US$1 900 From Trucker
A Zimbabwe Revenue Authority (ZIMRA) officer is accused of extorting US$1 900 from a trucker whom he caught smuggling fuel.
As reported by ZimLive, Kespa Chabata (57), appeared before Harare magistrate, Stanford Mambanje facing criminal abuse of office charges.
He was granted US$200 bail.
The court heard that on 09 March 2024, Chabata allegedly demanded US$3 000 so he could not confiscate a truck that was carrying wrong cargo.
He allegedly extorted the money from a fuel tanker driver, Given Alcapony Nhamo who was parked and resting at Zindoga truck stop in Waterfalls, Harare.
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Chabata, who was on night duty and drove by the truck stop while on his way home, spotted the truck, went over to Nhamo and asked to see the truck’s importation documentation. Prosecutors alleged:
Upon inspection of the documents, the accused noted that the declaration documents indicated that the tanker was carrying Butanone.
However, upon inquiry from the driver, what he was carrying was diesel and Chabata noted the anomaly.
The accused then asked who was in charge and the driver indicated that Lennon Chenga was the one in charge.
The accused asked the driver to contact Chenga to come to the scene.
The driver also informed one Kessie, the supervisor of Dinotic Energy in Sandton South Africa who had instructed him to transport the diesel to Zimbabwe.
Contrary to his duties, the accused did not contact his ZIMRA office or notify his supervisors of the development.
Rather, he went to extort US$3 000 from the driver and kept on holding on to the importation documents and indicated that Chenga should bring the money so that he does not confiscate the truck.
Kessie is said to have managed to raise US$1 900 which he sent and delivered to Chabata.
After receiving the money, Chabata reportedly gave back the truck’s documents, telling them the importation documents were fraudulent.
However, despite knowing of the offence, Chabata still did not confiscate the truck and instead allowed Nhamo to go.
Prosecutors argued that Chabata’s actions showed undue favour to the trucker as he should have placed the truck under seizure.
More: Pindula News
