Court okays detention of suspected car theft syndicate leader
Mr Vincent Kiprotich Rono who is suspected of being the leader of a syndicate involved in stealing of motor vehicles, when he appeared before a Nakuru magistrates court on August 31
A Nakuru court has allowed police to detain for two days a man suspected to be the leader of a car theft syndicate.
Resident Magistrate Daisy Mose yesterday ordered the detention of Mr Vincent Kiprotich Rono at the Nakuru Central Police Station after it emerged that the police had not concluded their investigations.
Mr Rono was arrested in Sotik on Tuesday, August 30, after a tip-off from the public.
Detective Harun Pokea of the Rift Valley Regional Directorate of Criminal Investigations in Nakuru told the court that police had received information about an attempt to sell a motor vehicle suspected to have been stolen.
The white station wagon was allegedly being sold by Mr Rono, who did not have ownership documents.
Sleuths set up a sting operation against the suspect and pounced on him at a petrol station in Sotik while he still had the vehicle.
Mr Pokea said Mr Rono could not produce ownership documents for the vehicle and police concluded that he had stolen it.
He was ferried back to the Nakuru DCI offices for further interrogation.
The court heard that preliminary investigations had revealed that the suspect is the ring leader of a syndicate involved in stealing vehicles and selling them in the region.
The detective sought to hold the suspect for seven days so that he could find the true owner of the vehicle and establish whether the chassis and engine numbers had been tampered with.
Mr Pokea also argued that the suspect was a flight risk and could abscond court if freed on bond.
“We only arrested him yesterday following a report by the public, and in compliance with the law we had to produce him in court today, so the time was not sufficient for us to conclude the investigation,” Mr Pokea said.
But the suspect objected to the request through his lawyer, claiming the detention would violate his rights to a fair trial.
The lawyer argued that the state had not sufficiently backed its reasons for seeking to detain his client and urged the court to dismiss the request.
But the court allowed the police to detain the suspect for two days in order to conclude their investigations before deciding whether to charge him.
