Richard Muponde
TWO Mutare men told a court in Chipinge that the flashy life they saw at a shebeen influenced them to commit crime to get money to spend extravagantly like other patrons after they were arrested for defrauding a woman of her cellphone and cash valued at RTGS$587.
Gift Mukanya and Brian Matope, from 202 Area 14 and 395 Area 16 Dangamvura respectively, revealed this before Chipinge magistrate, Joshua Nembaware. They pleaded guilty to fraud and are now awaiting sentencing.
In mitigations, they said they envied the shebeen lifestyle which influenced them to get into crime.
“We were influenced by someone to get into crime; we were not aware that we would be arrested. The person who influenced us ran away. We stay next to a shebeen so we envied the lifestyle of the shebeen patrons. We asked them how they survived and they told us to engage in fraud so as to earn a living. We made a mistake,” said the pair.
