Four held over theft of Magistrate’s car

Patrick Onyango, Kampala Metropolitan Police spokesman

What you need to know:

Theft. The car was stolen from the parking yard of Kabojja Primary School in Kampala on November 29

Kampala.
Police have arrested four people accused of stealing a chief magistrate’s vehicle and selling it in DR Congo.

The Chief Magistrate in Iganga District, Ms Flavia Nabakooza, however, will have to wait longer to get her vehicle back because the process of recovering it from DRC may require a court order and the intervention of the international police (Interpol).

Kampala Metropolitan Police spokesman Patrick Onyango said the car was stolen from the parking yard of Kabojja Primary School in Kampala on November 29.

“When Ms Nabakooza reported the case, our first suspicion was that the thief who stole the car could have had a duplicate key,” SP Onyango said. The police spokesman said they then asked for the people who could easily access the magistrate’s car and that was when they zeroed in on her former driver.

However, the police attempts to trace the magistrate’s former driver were fruitless as his phone numbers had been switched off.

The arrests
Ms Nabakooza later told police that she had hired him through a dealer. The detectives arrested the dealer who led them to the suspect’s hiding place.
Police said upon arrest, the former driver admitted to participating in the theft of the vehicle.

“He told our detectives that when he was still driving the chief magistrate’s car, he got a friend who lured him into the illicit trade. He said the friend took him to Nakawa market where they made duplicate keys,” he said.

After getting the duplicate keys, he quit the driving job to allow his colleagues to track the car until it was parked at Kabojja school. They used the duplicate keys to drive it away.

The driver later handed over the car to another colleague in the gang who drove it to DRC where it was sold.

All the suspects in the thieving chain have been arrested but SP Onyango said the police were facing a challenge to recover it from DRC.

According to police records, 623 motor vehicles were stolen in this manner last year.