Harare police station has issued a strong warning to residents to stop opening false cases of phones being stolen because they could face charges of perjury.
Spokesperson Warrant Officer Nosiphiwo Mntengwane said the station was concerned by the number of these cases being reported and after some investigation it was found that many of cases were false.
In some incidents, people had lied about their phones being stolen after being drunk at the weekend.
They also noted that people who open these cases are mostly between the ages of 18 and 35 years.
Harare police station has warned the public about opening false cases.
Image: Siyavuya khaya
She said these false cases increase their crime rates.
"This is wasting state resources. We could be putting these resources to a serious case but instead someone is playing with them simply because they want to cover up their backs. We have now put detectives to ensure that no one comes to us with that story and should they discover that you are lying you will be in trouble. You stand to lose your job, get a sentencing or punishable fine. We are urging the communuty to help us in such cases. When the crime statistic is issued our crime rate is gonna go up with fake and untrue crime. We are here to serve this community with intergrity and the best of our ability but people should not then abuse state resources," she said.
Ward councillor Anele Gabuza urged the community of Harare to report real crime instead of playing with state resources. He said this is going to create an unneccesary breakdown of the relationship between police officers and the community because residents assume that police are not working yet people are reporting fake crime.