In a shocking incident at an African Seventh-day Adventist church, Kadoma assembly the pastor stole 200 pairs of shoes from a congregant and put them on sale.

Learnmore Rupiya (41) was dragged to Gweru magistrates courts yesterday where he appeared before magistrate Nixon Mangoti.

Mangoti sentenced the pastor to two years behind bars and conditionally suspended the sentence to 350 hours of community service.

The court heard that on March 9 a student at Midlands State University (Dylan Maregere) left his 200 pairs of shoes in the church.

On the same day around 2300 hours, the pastor entered the church through the back door and stole the shoes.

He gave them to a vendor for resale and the vendor was arrested by detectives after a tip-off.

The vendor implicated the pastor who told the police that he took the shoes through the back door.

The shoes were valued at $4000 and only $2000 was recovered.

-Byo24