Another car theft charge for South African, Mozambican suspects

Lebogang Mosikare | Wednesday November 27, 2019 14:38

 

In the first count, the state alleges that the South Africans, Andrew William Ferreira, a manager at Chondors Motors in South Africa and Itumeleng Jethroy Mmelesi, who is self-employed, and a Mozambican, Antonio Focheiro, a mechanic at Chondors Motors, were found in possession of a suspected stolen white Isuzu truck estimated to be worth P300,000. 

When appearing for status and bail application hearing on Tuesday, state prosecutor Bedu Mambo told the court that they have received information from South African police about the alleged stolen truck. 

She also informed the court that they would be adding another charge of car theft against the accused after another suspected stolen car from South Africa was discovered at Gerald Estates. 

The accused’s attorney Martin Maeba applied for his clients to be granted bail saying that they were not a flight risk. 

However, the prosecution opposed the accused to be granted bail saying that they were a flight risk since they were caught while on transit to Zimbabwe to probably sell the truck. 

“The accused don’t have a permanent place of residence in Botswana and we fear that they may not attend court as and when required to do so. There is a high likelihood that if the accused are granted bail, they may not appear in court which would delay this matter to be finalised,” Mambo said.  

At the end of the mention, Chief Magistrate Faith Dlamini-Ngandu ruled that the investigating officer should appear in court during the next mention to give reasons as to whether the accused should be granted bail or not. 

The accused will appear in court on December 12, 2019.