By SANFROSSA MANYINDA
FOUR criminals, among them a 28-year-old woman, have been sentenced to five years imprisonment each for snatching more than K132, 000 from a motor vehicle in Ndola on Tuesday this week. Three of them are Zimbabweans while the woman is a Zambian, who were charged with theft from a motor vehicle, a robbery which attracted scores of Ndola residents.
The criminals robbed a security guard Francis Kunda from Zambezi Portland Cement. Owen Msimanga 48, of house number 161 in Matero, Norman Ng’uni, 47, of house number 1126 Chunga in Lusaka, Charles Lunga, 45 of an unmarked house in Matero, and Ethel Lyambai, 28 of house number 1772, Muchinga Road, in Chunga, Lusaka. The security guard was sent by Zambezi Portland Cement managing director Gomeli Litana to withdraw some money.
Particulars of the offence are that the four did steal K132, 048 property of Gomeli Litana. When the matter came up for plea before Ndola Principal Resident Magistrate Obbister Musukwa yesterday, the four pleaded guilty to the charge. The three Zimbabweans said they stole because they wanted to pay for their children’s school fees, while Lyambai said she wanted to use it for sustaining her family. The state then read the facts of the case before court.
The four convicts said the facts were true and in mitigation, the four asked the court to forgive them because they did not waste its time. But Magistrate Musukwa said cases of theft from motor vehicles were on the rise in Ndola and sentenced them to five years imprisonment with hard labour and others simple imprisonment
