TWO thieves will be spending the next few years in jail thanks to the hard work of Wentworth’s Constable Bongumusa Manqoba Zulu.

On 22 September it was discovered three copper pipes and four bent copper plates valued together at R800 had been stolen from the Wentworth police station exhibits room. Through his investigations, Cst Zulu found out the copper was sold in a pawn shop in Jacobs and the thief had used his name on the shop’s register.

The man, who was doing his community service at the station while out on parole, was arrested on 25 September and charged for theft.

Cst Zulu linked the man to a second theft at the station – a camera worth R8,000. The camera had been sold for R200 to a man living in the Hime Road flats, who confirmed who the seller was.

Both cases of theft were combined and he was found guilty of theft at Wentworth Court on 15 October. He was sentenced to five years in prison on 26 November.

In another case he was working, a thief was sentenced to three years in prison for the theft of R10,500 worth of goods from a Wentworth home.

On the morning of 4 December 2014, a man woke to find his house in Austerville Drive had been broken into. An iPad and Blackberry phone were stolen.

Through fingerprint analysis, Cst Zulu was able to find the name of the thief, who was convicted of other thefts in the area.

The 29-year-old, who was serving a sentence at Westville Prison at the time, was charged for theft and sentenced to three years in prison on Tuesday, 20 January in Wentworth Court.

“This was a great conviction, due to the high number of burglaries occurring in the area,” said Wentworth communications officer, Lieutenant Gumede.

“Cst Zulu has been highly commended for his patience and investigation skills and the positive effort he put in these cases. The community is also warned not to buy suspected stolen property from anyone. This will result in promoting a black market in our areas and the buyer being arrested and charged for receiving stolen property,” he added.