Three more in court over US$720k heist

THREE more suspects believed to have been involved in last week’s robbery case in which a financial services company was raided in Belgravia, Harare, losing over US$720 676, R10 500, e120, a 7.65 mm CZ Vzor pistol and three laptops, appeared in court yesterday.

Shadreck Tendai (42), Phillip Rwodzi (37) and Livingstone Tunha (53), who are all employees of Quest Financial Services, appeared before Harare magistrate Mrs Apollonia Marutya.

The State applied for a warrant of further detention which the magistrate granted.

They are expected to appear in court tomorrow together with six of their suspected accomplices.

The other six suspects are Washington Mangwanda (21), Brighton Chikuwa (27), Silence Matambo (27), Liberty Mukangaise (31), Richard Marondera (25) and Luke Zinyengere (28), who initially appeared before Harare magistrate Mr Donald Ndirowei.

The State also applied for a warrant of further detention to allow police to continue holding the six suspects for another 48 hours of investigations. Police said they needed to recover all the property that was bought using proceeds of the crime.

Defence lawyer Mr Tawanda Takaendesa did not oppose the application, but the period of detention for the six.

He suggested that an additional 24 hours was enough for interviews by police, and opposed the submissions by the State for making indications.

The allegations against the gang are that on Friday last week they went to rob Lancelot Tashayawedu at his offices at 6 Rochester Road in Belgravia armed with a revolver, an unidentified blank pistol, a drill, an iron bar, a bolt cutter and explosives.

The gang was driving in four separate vehicles: a blue Honda Fit, silver Honda Fit, black Mercedes Benz and a black Toyota Wish.

Upon arrival, they approached Mr Tashayawedu in his bedroom and tied his hands and legs with an electric cable, leaving him under guard by one of the alleged robbers while the others smashed the window pane of one of the office buildings to gain entry into the office.

The gang allegedly ransacked several offices at the building including the server room, the managing director’s office, the operations manager’s office and the board room. It is the State’s case that the suspected robbers blasted open the strong room and the safes with explosives and stole cash amounting to US$716 340-00, R10 000, e120, and PABX telephone machine and a 7.65mm CZ Vzor pistol serial numbers 20273.

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