Court in Malawi slaps impersonator with 10 year prison sentence
A 38-year-old man in Malawi’s southern district of Machinga has started serving a 10-year jail sentence with hard labour after convicted of stealing K5,000 and a motor cycle worth K240, 000 from a local farmer at Mthiniwa village, Traditional Authority Nyambi in the district.
In her submission police prosecutor, Inspector Gladys Jentala, told the Liwonde First Grade Magistrate court on Tuesday that the convict James Bitrose accompanied by Jackson Chida, 36 who is still at large stole the motor bike from Evans Saidi under the pretext of being an official from Malawi Revenue Authority and Malawi Police Service respectively who were demanding to see the documents obtained when purchasing the motor cycle.
Jentala said Chida had a pistol in his arms impersonating a police officer wearing a camouflage pair of trousers and a khaki shirt with a pair of handcuffs on his belt.
But according to Jentala the suspicious Saidi was not convinced with the way the two were conducting themselves and he asked them to produce official identities to which they failed.
“Instead the two started to threaten Saidi and told him that he should take his motor cycle and accompany them to Mselema Police station since he was resisting showing them the documents. But on the way they robbed him the motor cycle and took away 5,000 cash,” she said.
Although Bitrose pleaded not guilty to charges of robbery with violence and impersonating public officer, the court found him guilty after parading several state witnesses.
In his judgment First Grade Magistrate, Jones Masula sentenced Bitrose to ten years imprisonment for robbery with violence and another two years for impersonating a public officer which will run concurrently.
Bitrose comes from Nlungu village, Traditional Authority Nyambi in Machinga while his accomplice Chida who is being hunted by the police hails from Chitaganya village, Traditional Authority Nyambi in the same Machinga.
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