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CHISAMBA member of Parliament Moses Muteteka has been sentenced to five years imprisonment with hard labour after the Lusaka Magistrate’s Court found him guilty of theft of a motor vehicle.
This is in a matter in which Muteteka was charged with theft of a motor vehicle contrary to the Laws of Zambia.
In mitigation, Muteteka asked the court to exercise leniency as he was providing services to the people in his constituency as MP.
He said a severe or lengthy sentence will be catastrophic as this will compel the holding of a by-election in his constituency.
Muteteka said he is a family man with dependants and that a lengthy sentence will bring hardship and suffering on innocent third parties who depend on him for economic and social survival.
He said he took steps to ensure that the community in Chisamba had access to the vehicles whenever they needed it and that this shows remorse even before his conduct was questioned.
When the matter came up for judgment, principal resident magistrate Aridah Chulu said the prosecution had proved its case beyond reasonable doubt.
Mrs Chulu said there was no doubt that Muteteka had fraudulently deprived Government by registering in his name the vehicle which was bought using public funds.
She said Muteteka should not have swapped his vehicle for one that was bought by Chibombo District Council using public funds.
“I have noted that there could have been consent but he should not have registered the trucks in his names,” Mrs Chulu said.
She said Muteteka’s intent to help the people in Chisamba was defeated by his action of registering the vehicle in his names as this deprived the council when he registered the vehicle as an absolute owner.
Mrs Chulu said Muteteka deprived Chibombo District Council of the vehicle, adding that the vehicle continued to be registered in his name until investigations against him had commenced.
“There was no doubt that the trucks were registered in his name and that he only changed the names in February 2012 well after investigations against him had started in October 2011,” she said.
The court found that Muteteka, on May 24, 2010 in Lusaka, stole a motor vehicle namely a Mitsubishi Fuso light truck registration number ABX 3529, valued at K75 million, the property of Chibombo District Council (Chisamba Constituency) which he registered in his name.
