A police constable from the dog unit has appeared in the Windhoek Magistrate’s Court for allegedly stealing fuel since December last year. 

The 33-year-old Domingo Kambinda Ndara is working at Nampol’s K-9 Dog School, based at the Police College in Olympia.

It is alleged the constable has unlawfully and intentionally stolen fuel at five different police stations and Nampol main depot, using a Toyota bakkie. 

According to Khomas police spokesperson Silas Shipandeni, at times, the constable would fuel the same vehicle with a full tank at all five fueling stations in one day. 

“Like, he can fuel a full tank at Windhoek Police Station – and after an hour, he goes and fills another full tank at Otjomuise Police Station with the same vehicle. After an hour, or an hour and thirty minutes again, he will fill another full tank with the same vehicle at either Wanaheda or Katutura – or even Nampol main depot. He goes on like that until he finishes all the Nampol filling stations in Windhoek,” said Shipandeni.

Shipandeni said the investigation has also discovered that sometimes, the suspect skips a day at some filling stations to avoid being detected or questioned for any illegality.

“Like one day, he will only target two or three filling stations – and the next day, he will turn up at the other filling stations. Additionally, the Police College has a 20-litre jerrycans that they use to get fuel to be used in a lawnmower, but the investigation has discovered that at times you will find 38 litres recorded at various filling stations’ registers for a 20-litre jerrycan,” explained the warrant officer.

Furthermore, Shipandeni explained that the suspect uses the same kilometers when filling up the same vehicle at different filling stations, of which there is a distance between all the filling stations; hence, the recorded kilometres are supposed to change.

“He normally writes false figures in the vehicle’s log, which does not correspond with the figures he fills in the fuel registers at various filling stations (for example, he will write 45 litres in the vehicle’s logbook, while he will write 77 litres in the fuel register at that particular filling station),” he said. 

According to the information provided by the police, Ndara allegedly used to fill up the vehicle to sell fuel to taxi drivers in Windhoek. 

He appeared in the Windhoek Magistrate Court on Monday 16 May 2022, and he was denied bail, as the matter was remanded to 3 August 2022.

 - ljason@nepc.com.na