By Own Correspondent- A Harare man will spent the next 10 years behind bars after he was last week found guilty of possessing 500g of TelOne drop copper wires valued at $5 without any permit or license.

John Chekani (24) of Overspill, Epworth, was facing charges of contravening the Postal and Telecommunications Act when he appeared before Harare magistrate Learnmore Mapiye.

In passing sentence, Mapiye said such cases are on the increase despite several campaigns against them.

The court heard that on May 3, 2019 Desmond Kakurira was on duty at No. 31 Vernon Road, Greendale, Harare, where he is employed as a security guard.

The State proved that Kakurira peeped through the guardroom window and saw Chekani packing copper wires into his red satchel.

Kakurira called Chekani to the guardroom and he complied.

Upon being asked what was in his red satchel Chekani confirmed that it was TelOne drop wires.

The court heard that Kakurira went on to ask Chekani whether he had any permit or licence authorising him to possess the drop wires and he failed to produce anything, leading to his arrest.

The copper drop wires were positively identified by a member of TelOne Service Department.

Recently Harare magistrate Mrs Barbra Mateko convicted four men for stealing copper conductors weighing more than 45kg and sentenced them to 10 years in jail each.

Munyaradzi Mvumba (24) Tafadzwa Mlambo (22), Jephter Mugochi (30) and Sibonginkosi Banda (22) pleaded guilty to contravening Section 60A (3a) of the Electricity Act that prohibits receiving or taking possession of any material used in connection with the generation, transmission, distribution or supply of electricity.-StateMedia