Senior officer fined Shs50m for selling stolen car to wife

Senior police officer Anatoli Muleterwa has been fined Shs50m to atone for the illegal auctioning of a stolen vehicle to his wife at only Shs1m.
Mr Muleterwa is the head of Community Policing Department.

In her judgment of June 10, Justice Lydia Mugambe of Kampala High Court, held that the alleged auctioning of the car in question, a pick-up, was done at the time when its search was on and that the Assistant Commissioner of Police was fully aware of its search.
The said car was allegedly stolen from Makerere University main library in 2008, where it has been parked.

It was later recovered from Kisenyi (downtown Kampala), where it was being used for hire services.
The car in question belonged to a one Ms Adrine Kemirembe, although at the time it was stolen, it was being driven by her husband, Mr Alex Ssebagala.

“I find that the 2nd respondent (Muleterwa), a police officer, who was fully aware of the search operation for the lost car at the material time, was grossly involved in the misappropriation of the plaintiff’s car. The plaintiff’s car was sold to the 2nd defendant’s wife illegally,” Justice Mugambe ruled.

“The 2nd defendant (Muleterwa), is warned seriously to desist from using his office to the prejudice of unsuspecting citizens. In addition, the 2nd defendant shall pay Shs50m of the plaintiff’s total award or be committed to civil prison.”

The total compensation awarded to Ms Kemirembe included Shs120m as special damages to atone for loss of income since her stolen vehicle could be hired out on daily basis, and Shs150m as general damages.

She was also compensated with Shs12m which was the market value of the stolen car, costs of the law suit, including interest of 15 per cent per annum from the date of filing the law suit until payment in full.

The rest of the total award compensation (about Shs282m), will be paid by the Attorney General, in his capacity as the government chief legal adviser since the auctioning of the said car was done by the police, a government entity.

Further in her ruling, Justice Mugambe rejected the defence of Mr Muleterwa, who at the time was a community liaison officer at Kampala Central Police Station.
In his written statement, the senior police officer claimed he had got complaints from the custodian about the congestion in the store and parking yard.

To that effect, he said he applied to court for warrant of disposal of unclaimed properties and that indeed court issued the said orders for a police public auction.

He added that the court, on being satisfied with his request, appointed baillifs of Mpiima Associates to conduct a public auction of the said unclaimed properties, including the said stolen car.

However, Justice Mugambe rejected the defence on grounds that the car in question was not on the list of properties that court gave the go ahead to be auctioned.

“Needless to say is the close relationship of wife and husband between DW1 (Muleterwa) and Kizza Margaret, who bought the car, which demonstrates a conflict of interest in DW1’s dealings in relation to this car,” Justice Mugambe observed.