Three charged with stealing

Eldama Ravine

Wednesday, August 2, 2023

KNA by Christopher Kiprop

A merrymaking day out at a bar turned out to be a nightmare for three men who were arrested for stealing money from an Mpesa shop owner using a sneaky phone scam.

The trio Daniel Kosgei, Denniss Kiplabat and Ballack Kimosop committed the offence on 18th July at around 5pm at Kipsogon village in Mogotio sub county within Baringo County, where particulars of the charge indicate they stole Sh20, 000 from Mpesa account of John Chepkochei.

When they were arraigned in court Kiplabat pleaded not guilty and was released on a cash bail of Sh5000 after begging Eldama Ravine Senior Principal Magistrate Richard Koech to reduce it from Sh10, 000 since he was arrested because he was hanging out with the remaining accused at the place they were arrested.

The second and third accused pleaded guilty and will be sentenced at later date after undergoing assessment by probation officers.

Particulars of the charge showed that the accused approached John Chepkochei, who operates an Mpesa shop and requested that he buys them airtime worth Sh20 direct from Mpesa.

He allowed them to conduct the transaction on their own using his phone and to give him back the phone so that he could enter his Mpesa pin.

Later in the day when the complainant requested a statement for his Mpesa, he realized that the sum of Sh20,000 had earlier been sent from his Mpesa phone had been transferred to a number registered under Ballack Kimosop.

The following day he reported the matter at Mogotio Police station.

On July 20th, at around 2pm, the complainant spotted the accused persons on a drinking spree within Mogotio Town.

He alerted the police officers, who went and arrested them, while they were drinking at a bar in Mogotio.

An Itel phone was recovered from the third accused person bearing a sim card.

Upon investigations it was established that the sum of Sh20, 000 had been sent to that sim card on 18th of July from the complainant’s phone number.

The itel phone and an extract from the Mpesa statement were produced in court as exhibits.

In their mitigation, the second and third accused persons asked for forgiveness and promised that they would not repeat the offence.

The hearing date has been set for December 6, 2023 for the first accused, while the second and third accused will be sentenced on August 2, 2023.

Courtesy ; K. N. A