By YVONNE CHATE –
A THIRTY-SIX-YEAR-old man has been sentenced to five years imprisonment with hard labour by a Ndola magistrate’s court for stealing a truck his employer gave him to drive.
Frank Sakala, a driver of Mwelwa Farm in Ndola was on Thursday sentenced to five years in jail with hard labour after he was found guilty of theft of a motor vehicle by magistrate Bubala Sikalunda.
Facts are that Sakala on dates between May 1, 2012 and June 30, 2013, stole a motor vehicle registration number ACCR 634 valued at K 200,000 from Anderson Musonda, his employer.
Mr Musonda testified in court that in May 2012 he employed Sakala as his driver for his Scania truck and used to give him a salary of K2,500 per month.
In January 2013, Sakala informed his employer that the vehicle had broken down.
He said he instructed his driver to take the truck to his house but when he went home, he didn’t find the truck there.
Mr Musonda said Sakala had told him that he had taken the truck to a garage but could not state which garage it was.
Eventually, Mr Musonda reported to the Police and after Sakala was summoned by police, he disclosed that he had sold the mother body of the truck and he led the police to the person he sold it to.
“Sakala had sold the other spare parts to a Tanzanian man who later went back to that country and nothing has been recovered,” the witness said.
Sakala sold the mother body of the truck for K8,500.
In his defence, Sakala said he was involved in an accident with the truck in 2012 when he was sent to transport 400 bags of maize.
Sakala said Mr Musonda also faulted in paying his salaries.
Ms Sikalunda in her judgement sentenced Sakala to five years in prison with hard labour.